Interpol-led cybercrime crackdown results in 574 arrests in 19 African nations, decrypts six ransomware variants — Operation Sentinel disrupts rings that caused $21 million in losses, recovers $3 million

In an extensive coordinated effort led by Interpol, international law enforcement agencies have reportedly arrested 574 suspects in 19 countries across Africa involved in cybercrime operations. Operation Sentinel, conducted between October 27 and November 27, successfully recovered around $3 million by decrypting six ransomware variants and shutting down more than 6,000 malicious links. The top three cybercrimes identified during the crackdown included business email compromise (BEC), digital extortion, and ransomware.

The cases investigated during the operation were estimated to financial losses exceeding $21 million and included a long list of African nations including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

One of the biggest cases came from Senegal where authorities tracked a BEC attempt targeting a large petroleum company. Scammers had managed to take control of the internal email systems and impersonated executives to authorize a wire transfer amounting to $7.9 million. The Senegalese authorities managed to freeze the destination accounts and successfully halt the transfer before a withdrawal was made.

In Ghana, a ransomware attack encrypted 100 terabytes of data resulting in a $120,000 ransom demand from a financial institution. After conducting advanced malware analysis, the Ghanaian authorities managed to identify the ransomware strain, and successfully devised a decryption tool that recovered nearly 30 terabytes of data.

Neal Jetton, Director of Cybercrime at Interpol said, “The scale and sophistication of cyberattacks across Africa are accelerating, especially against critical sectors like finance and energy. The outcomes from Operation Sentinel reflect the commitment of African law enforcement agencies, working in close coordination with international partners. Their actions have successfully protected livelihoods, secured sensitive personal data and preserved critical infrastructure.”

Interpol flagged about the sharp rise in cybercrime across Africa back in June 2025, claiming that illegal activities conducted online accounts for more than 30% of all reported crime in Western and Eastern Africa. Additionally, around two-thirds of African member countries claimed cyber-related offenses accounted for a medium-to-high (10-30% or 30%+) share of all crimes.

Similar operations in the past have led to successful results including Operation Red Card, where authorities arrested 306 suspects across seven African countries and seized 1842 devices targeting cyber-enabled fraud and scams. Operation Serengeti conducted last year managed to infiltrate cybercrime networks which were said to be responsible for an estimated $193 million in financial losses targeting 35,000 global victims.

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