Law enforcement agencies across Africa are operating under severe constraints in the fight against cybercrime, even as INTERPOL-coordinated operations delivered record results in 2025, according to the INTERPOL African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, published in June.

The report, based on a survey of 36 African member countries, found that 94% of agencies reported insufficient digital forensics tools, while 78% cited inadequate budgets, response vehicles, and specialised personnel. Only 17% of countries maintain cybercrime units with more than 100 personnel, with many operating with fewer than 10 staff.

Technical expertise was also found to be unevenly distributed. While digital forensics and incident response skills remain relatively uncommon across the continent, the report noted that expertise in network security, penetration testing, crypto-asset tracing, and malware analysis is in even shorter supply.

AI readiness among law enforcement was described in the report as "alarmingly low," with only 22% of digital forensic units reporting a working knowledge of AI-driven threats, and just 8% of intelligence analysts having advanced expertise in the area.

Operational constraints were also flagged as a major barrier. According to the survey, 72% of respondents reported slow data exchange between agencies, while 89% identified cross-border cooperation as the most significant obstacle to successful investigations. The report warned that "the result is a system where evidence is lost, leads go cold, and perpetrators operate with near-total impunity."

In the report's foreword, INTERPOL's Director of Cybercrime, Neal Jetton, said "no country can address these threats in isolation, and no single institution can match the agility of criminal networks operating across borders."

Despite the capacity gaps, the report highlighted a series of coordinated INTERPOL operations that delivered tangible results against transnational cybercriminal networks in 2025.

- Operation Serengeti 2.0, conducted early in the year, targeted illegal cryptocurrency mining operations, scam centres, and ransomware infrastructure across Angola, South Africa, and Uganda. It led to the dismantling of more than 1,200 malicious servers, the seizure of 1,800 devices, and 120 arrests, disrupting networks responsible for an estimated USD 300 million in losses.

- Operation Contender 3.0, run in July and August, focused on romance scams and digital sextortion across 14 African countries, resulting in 260 arrests, the seizure of more than 1,200 devices, and the identification of 1,500 victims. The operation dismantled 81 online crime networks and recovered an estimated USD 2.8 million in illicit proceeds.

- Operation Sentinel, held between October and November, was described in the report as "the largest coordinated cybercrime crackdown in African history," spanning 19 nations and targeting business e-mail compromise, digital extortion, and ransomware. It led to 574 arrests, the recovery of approximately USD 3 million, the takedown of more than 6,000 malicious links, and the decryption of six ransomware variants, disrupting networks tied to more than USD 21 million in estimated losses.

- Operation Red Card 2.0, spanning December 2025 to January 2026, targeted high-yield investment fraud, mobile money scams, and fake loan applications across 16 African countries. It resulted in 651 arrests, the recovery of more than USD 4.3 million, the seizure of 2,341 devices, and the takedown of 1,442 malicious IPs and domains, uncovering scams responsible for an estimated USD 45 million in losses affecting 1,247 victims.

In total, INTERPOL-coordinated operations resulted in more than 1,500 arrests across the continent in 2025.

Even so, the report concluded that legal harmonisation across the continent "remains incomplete," and that many units still lack access to modern digital forensics tools, AI-detection systems, or secure communication infrastructure, underscoring the gap between operational wins and the underlying capacity needed to sustain them.