AfriNIC, the Internet Protocol address registry for the African continent, has been operating without a Board since 2022. The election for a new AfriNIC board is currently underway, with electronic voting having commenced on June 18, 2025, and in-person voting scheduled for Sunday, June 23, 2025. This election is the first since AfriNIC was placed under receivership, after being sued into insolvency by Lu Heng, a Chinese address broker and arbitrageur who operates as Cloud Innovation, Larus Limited, and an advocacy group called the Number Resource Society (NRS). Heng’s lawsuits paralyzed AfriNIC, freezing its bank account and preventing it from performing operational and governance activities like making policy and holding elections. But now the legal conflicts and internal corruption problems, which date back six years, may finally be resolved.
Receivership and Delays
AfriNIC was placed in receivership as part of efforts to revive the organization. The board elections were previously postponed and awaited plans from an official receiver. A court application led to the removal of the first receiver, and the second receiver has also faced allegations of impropriety. The current receiver, Mr. Gowtamsingh Dabee, moved forward with the elections, appointing British barristers to form the nominations committee, which produced a slate of regional and at-large candidates.
Legal Challenges
Just as AfriNIC seemed on the verge of getting its act together, the election process was subject to legal challenges. On June 6, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued a statement raising concerns about “transparency and fairness in AfriNIC’s election process for its Board of Directors.” Citing the ICANN statement, the Tanzanian Internet Service Providers Association (TISPA) filed and obtained an interim injunction from the Supreme Court of Mauritius (Commercial Division) to delay the AfriNIC election on June 13, citing concerns about voting rights for certain members who had joined after September 2023. On 18 June 2025, pursuant to Section 210 of the Insolvency Act 2009, ICANN joined the fray, filing an application against AfriNIC and its Receiver before the Supreme Court of Mauritius, seeking “immediate reconstitution of the Nominations Committee.”
It became clear that control of AfriNIC’s new board was the real issue of contention. In the preceding months (and years) Lu Hemg’s NRS waged a campaign to sway, and sometimes buy, votes in both AfriNIC and APNIC. Heng not only used disruptive and oppressive legal tactics, but even positioned NRS as a replacement for the global Number Resource Organization (NRO), the official cartel of incumbent Regional Internet Registries. The court challengers feared that the Nominating Committee was constituted by people with ties to Cloud Innovation.
Underground influence?
One of the key factors motivating these challenges was the discovery that Cloud Innovation was quietly added as a “registered member” in AfriNIC’s documents lodged with the Mauritian Corporate and Business Registration Department (CBRD) in April, without proper authorization. This status in effect made Heng’s Cloud Innovation a participant on AfriNIC’s governing board. The court opinion notes that the erroneous registration “cannot be attributed to AfriNIC and the Receiver inasmuch as such registration and/or classification was undertaken by the Registrar of Companies without even waiting for any statutory formalities to be effected.” The complainants also objected to “the appointment of two members to the Nomination Committee who had previously issued an opinion supporting the registration of the same company as a member of AfriNIC.” Obviously both TISPA and ICANN were concerned that Heng/Cloud Innovation would be in a position to control or influence the new AfriNIC board.
On June 19, 2025, the Supreme Court of Mauritius dismissed both challenges and allowed the election to proceed. The reasoning for the decision is contained in this Communique, which includes a transcript of the judge’s oral opinion and a gloss issued on behalf of AfriNIC and its receiver. Judge Mary Jane Lau Yuk Poon found that ICANN did not have standing to bring its application, and scolded it for its insistence on the immediate reconstitution of the nominations committee. ICANN was not “acting reasonably and responsibly” by “go[ing] against the objective of having a board constituted at Afrinic.” The AfriNIC summary notes that:
- “The Supreme Court refused to order the dismantlement of NomCom as requested by ICANN, thereby confirming and validating the legitimacy of NomCom and its members.
- “The constant confusion created by certain members regarding the classification of [Cloud Innovation] has been dissipated for good.
- “Following the Ruling in the ICANN case, the announcement of ICANN dated 06 June 2025 (and updated on 10 June 2025) which has been published on its website is therefore devoid of merit and unwarranted in the present circumstances.”
Even though the court admonished ICANN and did not reconstitute the Nominating Committee as it had requested, ICANN’s General Counsel declared victory on LinkedIn, saying “ICANN successfully obtained a ruling before the Supreme Court of Mauritius (Bankruptcy Division) ordering the Receiver of AfriNIC to issue a communique to all resource members that the inclusion of Cloud Innovation Ltd as a registered member was erroneous.”
May the best board members win…
So, everybody won, right? The elections will proceed, the nominating committee was duly constituted according to proper bylaws, Cloud Innovation was purged as a registered member but remains a voting resource member. The elections are crucial due to long-term experiences of corruption at AfriNIC and behind-the-scenes maneuvering by competing interest groups aiming to seize or retain control of the weakened organization. Influence over AfriNIC grants power over critical Internet resources which can be used in the region’s internet infrastructure. ICANN’s intervention was a lamentable over-reach, betraying a lack of confidence in the legal remedies taken to put AfriNIC back on its feet. Several organizations, including the South African Network Operators Group (Zanog) and the Internet Service Providers’ Association (Ispa), have published lists of recommended candidates. On the other hand, Paul Wollner, head of the Number Resource Society (NRS), is a preferred candidate of Lu Heng, founder of Cloud Innovation and Larus Limited. The African RIR can now have a free and fair election in which the members can decide for themselves who is on their board.
For the backstory on how the AfriNIC crisis happened, see this IGP blog post from August 2021. For a blog post on AfriNIC’s entry into receivership and whether that constituted a failure of private sector governance, see this IGP blog post from October 2023
