INTERPOL, in collaboration with authorities throughout Africa, has arrested 1,209 suspected cybercriminals and dismantled 11,432 malicious on-line infrastructures in one of many largest crackdowns on cybercrime within the area.
The operation, codenamed Serengeti 2.0, ran from June to August 2025 and led to the restoration of $97.4 million linked to on-line fraud concentrating on almost 88,000 victims.
The operation introduced collectively investigators from 18 African international locations and the UK to deal with high-impact cybercrimes, together with ransomware, enterprise e-mail compromise (BEC), and on-line scams—threats highlighted in INTERPOL’s newest Africa Cyberthreat Evaluation Report.
In response to a press release from INTERPOL, intelligence offered forward of the raids included suspicious IP addresses, domains, and command-and-control servers, whereas non-public sector companions contributed experience in monitoring crypto crimes, ransomware evaluation, and digital forensics.
In Angola, police shut down 25 unlawful cryptocurrency mining centres operated by 60 Chinese language nationals. Authorities additionally confiscated 45 illicit energy stations and IT tools price greater than $37 million, which the federal government now plans to repurpose for energy distribution in underserved areas.
Regardless of being one of many oldest types of web fraud, inheritance scams proceed to generate thousands and thousands for organized crime {groups}, INTERPOL famous.
Secretary Common of INTERPOL, Valdecy Urquiza, hailed the operation as a testomony to worldwide collaboration.
“Every INTERPOL-coordinated operation builds on the final, deepening cooperation, growing data sharing and growing investigative expertise throughout member international locations. With extra contributions and shared experience, the outcomes continue to grow in scale and impression,” Urquiza mentioned.
The operation was carried out underneath the African Joint Operation in opposition to Cybercrime, with funding assist from the UK International, Commonwealth and Growth Workplace.
It additionally acquired backing from business gamers resembling Fortinet, Group-IB, Kaspersky, Development Micro, and TRM Labs, amongst others.
Cybercrime stays one of many fastest-growing safety threats globally, with African nations more and more focused attributable to rising digital adoption.
INTERPOL’s Africa Cyberthreat Evaluation Report just lately launched reveals that ransomware assaults proceed to escalate throughout Africa, with Nigeria rating third on the continent with 3,459 ransomware menace detections in 2024.
The report additionally indicated that cybercrime has grow to be a dominant safety concern throughout Africa, with greater than 30% of all reported crimes in Western and Japanese areas linked to cyber exercise.
