Artificial intelligence is now driving 55 per cent of reported cybercrimes across Africa, enabling attacks to become faster, more sophisticated and increasingly difficult to detect, according to INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026.
The 40-page report, released on the organisation’s official X page, drew on survey data from 36 African member countries and warned that cybercrime has evolved from isolated criminal activities into an industrialised, borderless ecosystem fuelled by artificial intelligence.
INTERPOL noted that while Africa’s digital transformation is accelerating, with more than 1.1 billion mobile subscribers recorded in 2025, cybercrime legislation remains fragmented and law enforcement agencies across the continent are still inadequately prepared to respond to AI-enabled threats.
The report identified East Africa as a hotspot for mobile money fraud and ransomware attacks targeting critical infrastructure, while business email compromise (BEC) and romance scams remained widespread across Central and West Africa. Southern Africa, it added, has become an attractive target for global cybercriminals due to its high level of internet connectivity.
