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Cybercrime now constitutes more than 30% of all reported crimes in West and East Africa. This is according to INTERPOL’s newly released 2025 Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report. The report reveals a sharp rise in digital criminal activity across the continent. Two-thirds of African countries are now classifying cyber-related incidents as medium to high priority crimes.
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The INTERPOL report highlights a growing cybercrime epidemic that includes phishing scams, ransomware attacks, business email compromise (BEC), and digital sextortion. Phishing-based online scams are the most commonly reported cyber threat. They are followed by ransomware and BEC attacks targeting businesses and individuals alike.
According to INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime, Neal Jetton, “This fourth edition of the INTERPOL African Cyberthreat Assessment provides a vital snapshot of the current situation, informed by operational intelligence, law enforcement input, and private-sector collaboration. The threat landscape is evolving rapidly, with new threats like AI-powered fraud emerging that require immediate action. No single country or agency can combat this alone.”
The report also sheds light on systemic weaknesses across the continent. More than 90% of African nations say their law enforcement and judicial systems need significant upgrades to handle digital crimes effectively. This capacity gap leaves many countries vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
Ambassador Jalel Chelba, Acting Executive Director of AFRIPOL, emphasised the growing geopolitical and economic risks associated with cyber insecurity. “Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical issue. It is now a fundamental pillar for stability, peace, and sustainable development. It affects digital sovereignty, institutional resilience, citizen trust, and economic performance,” he stated.
The report calls for urgent investment in cybersecurity capacity building, and cross-border collaboration. Equally important is public-private partnerships to protect Africa’s digital future.
Africa’s top cyberthreats
In the past year, suspected scam notifications rose by up to 3,000 per cent in some African countries, according to data from Kaspersky. The company is one of several private sector partners that works with INTERPOL’s cybercrime directorate.
Ransomware detections in Africa also rose in 2024. South Africa and Egypt suffered the highest number, at 17,849 and 12,281 detections respectively according to data from Trend Micro. This is followed by other highly digitized economies such as Nigeria (3,459) and Kenya (3,030).
Incidents included attacks on critical infrastructure, such as a breach at Kenya’s Urban Roads Authority (KURA), and on government databases, such as hacks of Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
BEC-related incidents also rose significantly. About 11 African nations account for the majority of BEC activity originating on the continent. In West Africa, BEC fraud has driven highly organized, multi-million-dollar criminal enterprises, such as transnational syndicate Black Axe.
Sixty per cent of African member countries reported an increase in reports of digital sextortion. These threat actors use sexually explicit images to blackmail their targets. The images can be authentic – shared voluntarily or obtained through coercion or deception – or they can be generated by artificial intelligence.
Law enforcement challenges
Cybercrime continues to outpace the legal systems designed to stop it, according to African law enforcement. Seventy-five per cent of countries surveyed said their legal frameworks and prosecution capacity needed improvement.
At the same time, countries also reported struggling to enforce the existing laws on cybercrime, with 95 per cent of respondents reported inadequate training, resource constraints and a lack of access to specialized tools.
Despite rising caseloads, most African member countries surveyed still lack essential IT infrastructure to combat cybercrime. Just 30 per cent of countries reported having an incident reporting system, 29 per cent a digital evidence repository and 19 per cent a cyberthreat intelligence database.
While cybercrime routinely crosses national borders, 86 per cent of African member countries surveyed said their international cooperation capacity needs improvement due to slow, formal processes, a lack of operational networks, and limited access to platforms and foreign-hosted data.
Cybercrime investigations increasingly rely on cooperation from private sector partners, yet 89 per cent of African countries said their cooperation with the private sector needed ‘significant’ or ‘some’ improvement due to unclear channels for engagement, low institutional readiness and other barriers.
Strengthening cyber resilience
Nevertheless, the INTERPOL report also details positive steps that many African member countries have made to strengthen their cyber resilience.
Several African countries advanced their legal frameworks, harmonizing cybersecurity laws with international standards. Many countries also enhanced their cybercrime response capabilities, investing in specialized units and digital forensics infrastructure.
This increased operational capacity was demonstrated in two high-impact international cybercrime operations coordinated by INTERPOL – Operation Serengeti and Operation Red Card – which collectively led to more than 1,000 arrests and the dismantling of hundreds of thousands of malicious networks.
To further improve Africa’s cybercrime response capabilities, the INTERPOL report proposes six strategic recommendations, including improving regional and international cooperation, expanding prevention and public awareness, and leveraging emerging technologies.
INTERPOL’s Africa Cyberthreat Assessment is part of the Organization’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) initiative, which is aimed at strengthening the capability of African law enforcement to prevent, detect, investigate and disrupt cybercrime. The AFJOC initiative is supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
In addition to information gathered from INTERPOL member countries in Africa, the Assessment benefits from data contributed by private sector partners Bi.Zone, Group-IB, Kaspersky and Trend Micro.
Download the INTERPOL’s 2025 Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report HERE.
