ASREN, UbuntuNet Alliance and WACREN are the regional research and education networks interconnecting national research and education networks (NRENs) across the continent (Northern Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa).
African RENs provide connectivity and other services to millions of end users in the education and research community (students, faculty, researchers, administrators, etc.), and INRs are critical for the delivery of these services.
The REN community is following with interest but also with concern the heated debate on the current lawsuit against AFRINIC that led to the freezing of its bank accounts, thus jeopardizing its operations.
Many years ago, members of the REN community expressed concerns about a risk for AFRINIC, when a resource member publicly said that AFRINIC will face bankruptcy if it dares consider reclaiming resources that many members thought were assigned wrongly, or at least were not used as initially indicated. It was, at that time, recommended to address this issue seriously.
And here we are.
Anyway, the current situation is very serious and our community and the friends of the African Internet community should stand together and fight against those who want to destroy and bury AFRINIC. Yes, there are things to improve at AFRINIC.
But in this critical situation, we urge all to stand by and support the Board and Management of our organization.
We say no to any attempt to move the management of Internet number resources attributed to Africa to any other organization.
Therefore, we, as representatives of the African REN community, express our full support to AFRINIC Board and Management and invite all Africans and friends of Africa to do the same.
Signed:For ASREN (www.asrenorg.net): Eng. Yousef Torman, MDFor Ubuntunet Alliance (www.ubuntunet.net): Dr. Matthews Mtumbuka, CEOFor WACREN (www.wacren.net): Dr. Boubakar Barry, CEO