Ghanaian authorities played a central role in a coordinated African cybercrime operation that led to 574 arrests and the recovery of about US$3 million, according to the International Criminal Police Organization, INTERPOL.
The month-long initiative, dubbed Operation Sentinel, ran from October 27 to November 27 and targeted business email compromise schemes, digital extortion and ransomware activities across 19 African countries. Investigations linked to the operation uncovered estimated financial losses exceeding US$21 million.
Ghana recorded some of the most significant outcomes during the operation. Local law enforcement dismantled a major cross-border fraud network operating between Ghana and Nigeria, which defrauded more than 200 victims of over US$400,000. The crackdown resulted in 10 arrests, the seizure of more than 100 digital devices and the shutdown of 30 fraudulent servers.
According to investigators, the fraud syndicate relied on professionally designed websites and mobile applications to impersonate well-known fast-food brands. Victims were tricked into making payments for food orders that were never delivered, highlighting what authorities described as the increasingly industrial scale of cybercrime operations in West Africa.
In a separate case, a Ghanaian financial institution was hit by a ransomware attack that encrypted roughly 100 terabytes of data, causing losses of about US$120,000 and disrupting critical services. Ghanaian authorities carried out advanced malware analysis that enabled them to identify the ransomware strain and develop a decryption tool, recovering nearly 30 terabytes of compromised data. Multiple suspects have since been arrested in connection with the incident.
“The scale and sophistication of cyberattacks across Africa are accelerating, especially against critical sectors like finance and energy,” said Neal Jetton, INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime, in a statement. He added that the results from Operation Sentinel demonstrated the growing commitment of African law enforcement agencies working closely with international partners.
The operation also produced notable results across the wider region. In Senegal, authorities prevented a potential US$7.9 million loss after a major petroleum company detected a business email compromise scheme. Fraudsters had infiltrated internal email systems and impersonated company executives to authorise a fraudulent wire transfer. Swift action by Senegalese authorities led to the freezing of destination accounts before any funds could be withdrawn.
Benin recorded the highest number of arrests, with 106 suspects detained. Authorities there shut down 43 malicious domains and more than 4,300 social media accounts linked to online extortion and scam operations.
Across participating countries, law enforcement agencies dismantled over 6,000 malicious links and decrypted six different ransomware variants during the operation.
Operation Sentinel was conducted under the African Joint Operation against Cybercrime framework, with funding from the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. It was also supported through the Global Action on Cybercrime Enhanced project, a joint initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe.
INTERPOL coordinated the effort with technical support from private sector partners including Team Cymru, The Shadowserver Foundation, Trend Micro, TRM Labs and Uppsala Security. These organisations assisted in tracing IP addresses used in ransomware and sextortion schemes and in freezing illicit financial assets.
The operation comes amid mounting concern over the economic impact of cybercrime across the continent. INTERPOL’s Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report for 2025 found that two-thirds of surveyed African member states reported cyber-related offences accounted for a medium to high proportion of all recorded crime.
Experts note that the gap between recovered funds and total estimated losses underscores persistent challenges in asset recovery, even when perpetrators are identified and arrested.
Countries that participated in the operation included Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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