NAIROBI, Kenya — More than half of all cybercrimes reported across Africa are now powered by artificial intelligence, according to the newly released INTERPOL African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, highlighting a dramatic shift in the continent’s cyber threat landscape as criminal networks increasingly deploy AI to automate attacks, evade detection and expand operations across borders.
The report reveals that 55 per cent of cybercrime incidents reported across Africa now involve artificial intelligence, reflecting the growing sophistication of cybercriminals who are using emerging technologies to accelerate attacks and increase their scale.
The assessment identifies distinct regional trends across the continent. East Africa has emerged as a hotspot for mobile money fraud and ransomware attacks targeting critical infrastructure, while business email compromise and romance scams remain widespread in Central and West Africa.
Southern Africa, with its relatively advanced digital infrastructure and high internet connectivity, has become an attractive target for international cybercriminal groups seeking maximum disruption.
The report also indicates that financial losses linked to cybercrime across Africa have more than doubled since 2024, reaching an estimated US$484 million.
Drawing on survey responses from 36 INTERPOL member countries and intelligence from private-sector cybersecurity partners including Fortinet, Mastercard, the Shadowserver Foundation, S2W and TrendAI, the report found that 72 per cent of surveyed countries reported the presence of organised scam centres, particularly in Southern and West Africa.
Among the report’s most concerning findings is the rapid rise of AI-generated synthetic identities, which are increasingly being used to bypass biometric security systems.
Cybercriminals are combining stolen personal information with fabricated data to create convincing digital identities capable of deceiving identity verification systems. These synthetic identities are then used to open bank accounts, obtain mobile loans and register SIM cards under false identities.
INTERPOL Cybercrime Director Neal Jetton warned that artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming how cyberattacks are conducted.
“AI is automating every stage of a cyberattack from reconnaissance and phishing to extortion and evasion,” Jetton said.
He noted, however, that increased cooperation among law enforcement agencies has enabled authorities to identify, disrupt and dismantle sections of the cybercriminal infrastructure operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The report identifies online scams as the most frequently reported cybercrime across Africa, with the financial services, telecommunications and government sectors remaining the primary targets of AI-enabled credential theft and automated social engineering attacks.
The findings mirror Kenya’s own evolving cyber threat environment.
In June, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) announced that it detected 3.37 billion cyber threat events between January and March 2026. Although that represented a 26.15 per cent decline compared to the previous quarter, the regulator warned that attacks had become more sophisticated, with system attacks targeting critical information infrastructure accounting for 3.23 billion of the incidents.
The INTERPOL assessment also highlighted Kenya’s growing exposure to phishing attacks, noting that the country ranked among SOCRadar’s top global phishing detections in September 2025.
