Africa risks becoming a haven for cybercrime if control of its internet addresses slips into the wrong hands, a danger growing more likely as the body managing them edges toward collapse.<\/p>\n
On July 28, ICT ministers from across the continent convened virtually in a last-ditch effort to salvage the Africa Network Information Centre (AfriNIC), the body that allocates internet protocol addresses in the region.<\/p>\n
AfriNIC is under receivership and facing collapse, threatening Africa\u2019s grip on one of its most critical digital resources: Version 4 of internet protocol addresses (IPv4).<\/p>\n
These addresses, which uniquely identify devices online, are the backbone of internet communication and a globally scarce commodity.<\/p>\n
As one of the world\u2019s five regional internet registries, AfriNIC is the official custodian of Africa\u2019s internet numbers. But a barrage of lawsuits from Cloud Innovation, a former client, has paralysed the institution.\u201cAllowing AfriNIC to fail is as good as selling our freedom to Cloud Innovation,\u201d warns Thelma Quaye, director of infrastructure, skills and empowerment at Smart Africa, an AU-backed initiative to expand digital access.\u201cIt\u2019s as simple as that because what happens is that Cloud Innovation has the financial muscle with the number of IPs they have to start even leasing IPs within Africa. And it does not even have African interest at heart.\u201dCloud Innovation, registered in Seychelles, received about 6 million IPv4 addresses between 2013 and 2016 to support Virtual Private Network (VPN) services in Africa.<\/p>\n
AfriNIC terminated its membership in July 2021, accusing the company of policy breaches, including reselling IP addresses outside the continent, unauthorised sub-allocations, and refusing to cooperate with audits.<\/p>\n
The company hit back with a flurry of lawsuits in Mauritius and Seychelles \u2013 at least 52 to date \u2013 draining AfriNIC\u2019s finances. AfriNIC is a non-profit organisation funded only through the lease fees paid by network operators across the continent.<\/p>\n
Experts now fear others may be exploiting AfriNIC\u2019s weakness to divert Africa\u2019s scarce IPv4 resources offshore. \u201cWe believe there may be others, but Cloud Innovation is the most prominent,\u201d Ms Quaye told The EastAfrican.<\/p>\n
Why the fierce contest over Africa\u2019s IPv4 allocations? Ms Quaye notes that Africa is the only region yet to exhaust its share, which accounts for just five percent of the global pool.<\/p>\n
The stakes go beyond scarcity. If actors outside Africa gain control of the continent\u2019s IPv4 allotment, they could not only limit Africans\u2019 access but also exploit the addresses for cybercrimes masked as originating from Africa.\u201cThere\u2019s an economic but also a jurisdictional consequence of that,\u201d Ms Quaye cautioned. \u201cInvestigative agencies are able to know whether an IP is from Africa, Asia, or wherever. If you resell IPs that are supposed to be in Africa to China, we\u2019ll be tracing them in Africa, but they are somewhere else. That\u2019s what\u2019s at stake.\u201dNow, ahead of the September 30 deadline for the election of new board members, African ICT ministers have called on AfriNIC\u2019s receiver to ensure a timely, free and fair poll, which could be what resuscitates the organisation.<\/p>\n
They also urged for a multistakeholder dialogue to ensure AfriNIC\u2019s future, and a mobilisation of domestic AfriNIC members to turn up for the elections and ensure a sustained future for the organisation.<\/p>\n