AFRINIC

The AFRINIC Board consists of a nine-member Board of Directors.[5] Six of the directors are elected to represent the different sub-regions, while two directors are elected to serve on the Board-based solely on competency as opposed to regional representation. The last seat on the Board is filled by the Chief Executive Officer.

Elections are held at each AFRNIC Annual General Meeting (AGMM), which is conducted around May/June every year. Voting takes place both on site at these meetings and prior to the meeting via online voting.

The AFRINIC Council of Elders consists of six former AFRINIC chairpersons.

They fulfill an advisory role and harness all their experience leading the organisation as former Chairs.

The Members of the AFRINIC Council of Elders are:

1. Dr. Nii N. Quaynor (AFRINIC Board of Trustees Chair: 2001-2004)
2. Mr Pierre S. Dandjinou (AFRINIC Chair: 2004-2008) Board Member: 2004-2010
3. Dr. Viv Padayatchy (AFRINIC Chair: 2008-2011) - Board Member: - 2005-2011
4. Mrs Maimouna Ndeye Diop Diagne (AFRINIC Chair: 2011-2012) - Board Member: 2010-2013

AFRINIC staff carries out the daily operations of the organization.

The Staff is structured in nine departments: CEO's Office, HR and Administration, Research and Innovation, Finance and Accounting, External Relations, Communication and Public Relations, Member Services, IT and Engineering, and Capacity Building. These divisions encompass all AFRINIC activities, including that of acting as a central source of information for Members.

AFRINIC's open policy development process also invites stakeholders interested in Internet number resources from around the world (but mostly the African region) to participate. These include representatives from governments, regulators, educators, media, the technical community, civil society, and other not-for-profit organisations.

A former senior management member from AFRINIC, Ernest Byaruhanga, committed what is tagged to be Africa’s greatest internet heist. In total, 4.1 million IP addresses were stolen. 2.3 million came from AFRINIC’s “free pool” and a further 1.7 million were “legacy” IP addresses. They were worth around $87M, according to MyBroadband. IPv4 addresses, which were already reserved and in use by major organizations were effectively hijacked and sold. These reappropriated IP addresses were used to forward spam, breach data records, and compromise functioning websites. Dozens of South African-based companies and businesses were impacted. Education sectors and the Department of Defence were also hit, losing addresses worth approximately $5.3M.

In March 2018, a sexual harassment complaint was filed by the RIR's former head of external relations, Vymala Poligadu. She alleged that she had been sexually harassed by Afrinic's former chair Sunday Folayan,former vice-chair Hytham El-Nakhal and former finance director Patrisse Deesse. She also alleged that they had been actively plotting to get her fired from her position. The internal report detailing Poligadu's accusations was then leaked onto the organization's discussion mailing list by an anonymous poster, writing in response to a complaint by another member about high staff turnover.

Sunday Folayan and Haitham El Nakhal quit after the victim filed the complaint detailing the toxic and unprofessional work environment in AFRINIC, while stating that she is just one of many female staff who are harassed and intimidated daily by the AFRINIC male staff. Instead of conducting an investigation, AFRINIC covered up the scandal by not addressing the text messages pestering the now-departed AFRINIC female staffer, and has announced that there had been no evidence of harassment, bullying or intimidation on the part of certain members of the board.[6]

Afrinic has been in a feud with Cloud Innovation (CI) since July 2021, as it intended to revoke over 6 million IP addresses from the company backing the claim with a breach in policy. Afrinic’s attempt to seize IP addresses currently under Cloud Innovation’s domain backfired, as by bringing the issue directly to court, without an effort to de-escalate the matter, the RIR did not follow its own in-house policies. As a result of the unfounded claims advanced by Afrinic, the Supreme Court of Mauritius ordered to freeze the RIR’s bank accounts, crippling its operations. Although due to court order Afrinic has restored CI’s IP address blocks on July 15th, the RIR’s bank assets remained frozen until October 15th, when they were granted the removal of the freezing order against AFRINIC in the Mauritius Court. The litigation is still ongoing. [7]