Interpol has warned that artificial intelligence is now linked to more than half of all cybercrime reported across Africa, with financial losses on the continent more than doubling in two years to US$484 million — a finding that arrives days after Angola’s largest mobile operator, Unitel, suffered one of the most severe cyber disruptions in the country’s recent history.
The alert comes at a particularly sensitive moment for Angola. The attack on Unitel left millions of customers without access to voice, data and SMS services for several days, with direct knock-on effects on payments, salaries and tax obligations nationwide. The timing gives Interpol’s findings an immediate and concrete resonance: the Unitel incident was not an isolated episode but a textbook illustration of the broader threat the international police organisation has now formally documented across the entire southern African region.
According to Interpol’s Africa Cyber Threat Assessment Report 2026, southern Africa’s high level of digital connectivity makes it a ‘priority target’ for global cybercriminals. The 40-page report is based on data gathered from 36 African countries.
AI is associated with 55% of all cybercrime reported across the continent, making attacks ‘faster, more scalable and harder to detect’, the report states. The document concludes that cybercrime has ceased to be a collection of isolated incidents and has instead evolved into an ‘industrialised, borderless ecosystem’.
Interpol also underlines that Africa’s rapid digital transformation — with more than 1.1 billion mobile communications service subscribers recorded in 2025 — has simultaneously expanded the exposure of populations to fraud, attacks and extortion schemes.
Financial losses attributable to cybercrime in Africa more than doubled compared with 2024, rising from US$192 million to US$484 million. The organisation warns that cybercrime legislation ‘remains fragmented’ across many African countries, and that the capacity of law-enforcement agencies to deal with AI-facilitated crimes ‘continues to be low’ — a gap Interpol considers particularly alarming given the speed at which criminal networks are adopting these technologies.
Scams were the most widely reported category of cybercrime across the continent in 2025, with attackers exploiting mobile money platforms, social media networks and artificial intelligence to reach victims. The report also notes that 72% of surveyed countries reported the presence of organised scam centres, with the highest concentrations in southern and western Africa.
The report maps cyber threats on a region-by-region basis, highlighting distinct threat profiles across the continent.
Among the most concerning phenomena identified is the growth of digital sexual extortion and online harassment, fuelled by AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic content. TrendAI, one of the industry partners that collaborated with Interpol on the report, recorded approximately 600,000 cases of digital sexual extortion in Africa during the period under review.
One emblematic incident cited in the report to illustrate the growing sophistication of attacks occurred on 18 July 2026, when a group of hackers compromised the official website of Kenyan President William Ruto, defacing the homepage with messages addressed directly to the head of state and demanding a ransom of five bitcoin — valued at approximately 41 million Kenyan shillings, or around US$300,000, at the time of the attack.
‘Cybercrime in 2026 is more sophisticated and destructive than ever, but Operation Synergia III is a powerful testament to what global cooperation can achieve,’ said Neal Jetton, director of Interpol’s cybercrime unit. Jetton noted that organised criminal networks continue to inflict severe financial and psychological harm on individuals, businesses and communities through increasingly sophisticated online fraud schemes, adding that initiatives such as Operation Red Card demonstrate the critical role of international cooperation in combating transnational cybercrime.
Interpol’s diagnosis carries particular weight for Angola at a moment when the country is actively reinforcing its institutional capacity to respond to financial and cybercrime. The National Bank of Angola (BNA) recently signed a protocol with the Ministry of Interior specifically aimed at preventing, combating and suppressing cybercrimes with an impact on the financial system. In the light of the new Interpol report, that institutional cooperation effort appears all the more urgent, given the rapid industrialisation of cybercrime across the southern African region.
Source: Mercado / Original article: https://mercado.co.ao/angola-confrontada-com-alerta-da-interpol-inteligencia-artificial-ja-esta-associada-a-mais-de-metade-dos-cibercrimes-em-africa/
