Overview
- Interpol released the African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 on Monday, August 3, 2026, and found 55% of reported cybercrimes on the continent now involve AI.
- Reported financial losses more than doubled to an estimated $484 million in 2025 from $192 million in 2024, driven by AI-enabled scams, credential theft and automated social engineering.
- The report says 72% of surveyed countries identified organised scam centres concentrated in Southern and West Africa and that TrendAI logged roughly 600,000 detections of deepfake and synthetic-media abuse tied to sextortion and harassment.
- Interpol credits coordinated operations in 2025–early 2026 with hundreds of arrests, takedowns and partial asset recoveries, but notes law enforcement recovered only a small share of overall losses as about 92% of agencies report limited AI expertise.
- The assessment calls for faster cross-border data sharing, standardised digital forensics and public‑private cooperation because Africa’s rapid digital uptake, heavy use of mobile money and outdated legal frameworks let AI-driven criminal networks scale across countries.