[rpd] AfriNIC audit data

[Andrew Alston]

Read the wording carefully.

A.) note the “including but not limited to”
B.) note that “to provide the service of allocating and registering
Internet resources for the purpose of enabling communications via open
system network protocols” is distinct from the second half of the sentence
- which is why there it says “and” there.

The bylaws do not prohibit the allocation of space for off continent usage
- nor does any policy outside of the soft landing policy.  As people have
pointed out - every attempt to do this via policy has not gained consensus.

I am not advocating for space to be allocated and used off continent btw, I
am merely stating the current status quo - and if indeed people are using
resources off continent within the bounds of policy set by the policy
process, then we are contributors to the policy process have only ourselves
to blame.   But let’s not try and twist the words of the bylaws and other
things to say things they dont say - because it’s exactly this kind of
thing that can end up with the organisation in legal trouble when they
apply meaning to wording that isn’t there

Andrew

> "3.4) The Company shall have, both within and outside the Republic of
> Mauritius, full capacity to carry and/or undertake any business or
> activity, including but not limited to the following objects:
>
>     i. to provide the service of allocating and registering Internet
> resources for the purposes of enabling communications via open system
> network protocols and to assist in the development and growth of the
> Internet in the African region;"
>
> Fernando
> On 10/29/2025 9:22 AM, Grégoire EHOUMI wrote:
>
> Hi Fernando,
>
> Don't remember of this being like that. Resources registered in AfriNic
> region, regardless of when they were assigned are to be used majority
> within the region for Africa Internet development and AfriNic staff already
> made that clear in the past. There would be no sense to get resources from
> AfriNic and be able to freely use outside the region.
>
> You are right. We had these discussions several times in the past. It is a
> Regional Internet Registry and its resources are to be used in the region.
> Members in the region which span multiple regions should establish
> relationship with multiple RIRs. Staff in the evaluation of requests might
> allow some out of region usage of resources if and when the relationship
> with other RIRs not possible. The type of custodian at AFRINIC is of "Valid
> as long as original criteria remain satisfied". If staff has allowed out of
> region usage, audit should not find problems.
>
> The two policy proposals which tried to define which proportion of
> resource may be used out of the region failed for the reasons above and
> also because the AFRINIC held resources are not for sale.
>
>
> https://afrinic.net/policy/archive/limited-out-of-region-allocation-of-ipv4-resources-afpub-2011-v4-003-draft-02
>
>
>
> https://afrinic.net/policy/archive/out-of-region-use-of-afrinic-internet-number-resources
>
> Thanks
> Grégoire
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Fri, 24 Oct 2025, 10:18 Andrew Alston, <aa at alstonnetworks.net> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> With regards to space being used out of region - that's extremely
>>> difficult to actually know - because the BGP table has no knowledge of
>>> geography :)
>>>
>>
>> I wouldn't say it is trivial but with geolocation data plus some
>> traveroutes and latency check it is not extremelly dificult to find out.
>>
>> With some intended work that can be found out and further investigate to
>> give AfriNic all necessary information.
>>
>> Fernanso
>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Yes there are legitimate cases, but when this happens it may be a
>>>> signal
>>>> of alert. The point is to find two things: 1) If the ASN announcing it
>>>> doesn't have any relation to the resource holder and 2) If resources
>>>> are
>>>> being used out of the region (the worst).
>>>> For the case of parent/sub-company ideally resources should be
>>>> transferred among companies using them in reality then.
>>>>
>>>> Fernando
>>>>
>>>> On 10/24/2025 7:45 AM, Andrew Alston wrote:
>>>> > Hi All,
>>>> >
>>>> > While I haven't got around to publishing the code behind this -
>>>> mainly
>>>> > because it by necessity exposes certain data and requires a BGP dump
>>>> > from a juniper router which is hundreds of megs big, I've attached
>>>> the
>>>> > output of the code I wrote.
>>>> >
>>>> > One caveat with this data - There is nothing inherently wrong with
>>>> > space allocated to an organisation being announced by a non-AfriNIC
>>>> > ASN, there are many legitimate cases and reasons behind this.  The
>>>> > same thing happens when space is allocated to one organisation but
>>>> > announced by another, and this can happen when a sub-company of a
>>>> > parent company is announcing space from their own ASN when the space
>>>> > was originally allocated to the parent.  As such, when reading this
>>>> > data, it's important to understand that the abnormalities detected do
>>>> > not necessarily indicate anything nefarious - and this data should
>>>> not
>>>> > be seen as accusations of malfeasance against anyone.
>>>> >
>>>> > Let's see if the lists let this post through!
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks
>>>> >
>>>> > Andrew
>>>> >
>>>> >
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