Cross Border Cyber Crimes in Africa: Legislations and Remedies.

Author: Branton Komba.

Most recently in African countries there has been a surge of internet crimes the most popular of which is widely known as Yahoo boys in West African countries. This has however spread to more African countries further from the west. The most popular of these crimes include siphoning money from foreign account or defrauding unsuspecting foreigners of their hard-earned money. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to these crimes than what meets the eye.

Let’s take a deep dive into what cybercrimes are and explore what safeguards have been put in place in regard to legislations and possible remedies to help in strengthening this safeguard.

Then what are cross border cybercrimes? These are illegal activities conducted through the internet and other digital networks with the perpetrators, victims and infrastructure are located in different countries. These crimes essentially take advantage of the borderless nature of the internet making them difficult to prosecute and investigate due to varying legal systems and jurisdictional boundaries.

These crimes exploit the borderless nature of the internet. A single scam may involve perpetrators in one country, victims in another, servers in a third, and laundered funds moving through accounts worldwide. These crimes undermine trust in digital systems, drain public and private resources, and can destabilize critical sectors such as banking, telecommunications, and government.

These crimes take various forms. Take an instance where an organisation from country X hacks in the emails of a company in country Y. Then they intercept the invoices from their clients redirecting the payments to another bank different from the one that was intended. The money is then laundered and put indifferent accounts across various other countries across Africa and also in countries outside Africa. These crimes are known as Business Email Compromise. It is very vibrant especially in Ghana and Nigeria.

Other examples include:

Phishing and Online Fraud: Fake websites clone trusted services such as tax portals, banks, or mobile money platforms to steal credentials.
SIM Swap Fraud: Criminals illegally swap victims’ SIM cards to hijack mobile banking services, sometimes with insider help.
Ransomware Attacks: Hackers deploy malware to encrypt data and demand payment, often in cryptocurrencies routed through multiple jurisdictions.
Child Sexual Exploitation: Syndicates produce or distribute illegal content across borders.
Terrorist Propaganda: Extremist groups exploit the internet for recruitment and financing, coordinating networks across continents.
Legislations available:
National Frameworks: In as much as these crimes take place across various jurisdictions, in many instances these cases are tried at national level. Some African countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Mauritius have put in place cybercrime acts that address the emerging cybercrimes in their jurisdictions. These laws mainly aim at criminalizing hacking, unauthorized access, phishing, identity theft, child pornography and digital fraud. They also empower enforcement authorities to search seize and analyze digital evidence.
Regional Frameworks: Various blocs in Africa have also addressed the surge in these crimes and have put in place frameworks to protect their citizens from these crimes across their borders. They include ECOWAS Directive on Fighting Cybercrime (2009). This was meant to address the increase in these crimes. As there had been a surge in these crimes especially in the form of Yahoo boys in Ghana and Nigeria. SADC Model Law on Computer Crime and Cybercrime (2012). This was developed as a guideline for member states to come up with modern laws to address the emerging cybercrimes.
Continental Frameworks: The African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection otherwise known as The Malabo convention. Sought to address the cross-border nature of the above crimes across all African countries. It was intended to harmonize the cybercrime and data protection laws.
International Frameworks: Budapest Convention on Cybercrime (Council of Europe). The main aim of this was to promote international cooperation, mutual legal assistance and harmonized definitions of cyber offences. Various African countries such as Mauritius, Ghana, Cape Verde and Senegal are signatories of the above.

Challenges in Enforcement:

Despite the existence of these frameworks, Africa still faces several obstacles in the enforcement and curbing of these cybercrimes. Among these challenges include

Weak Implementation: Many states lack modern legislation or have not fully domesticated regional conventions.
Limited Capacity: Digital forensics units, technical experts, and trained prosecutors are scarce.
Jurisdictional Barriers: Evidence, perpetrators, and victims spread across multiple countries complicate investigation.
Extradition Gaps: Many African countries lack updated extradition treaties or robust mutual legal assistance mechanisms.
Public Awareness: Low digital literacy leaves citizens vulnerable to scams.

Possible Remedies:

Even with the various challenge facing this, all hope is not lost. These can be addressed in various ways including.

At national level, the available legislation can be used in the arrest, investigation and prosecution of these criminal. This is a great deterrent to these criminal activities. An example of such is in Kenya in the case of Alex Mutuku V the Republic [2021] EKLR. In as much as the prosecution still faces challenges such as technical capacity gaps in digital forensics, it is still a great start in curbing these crimes.

Further, since in many instances the loss of large sums of money is lost by the victim, civil and administrative remedies should also be sought. Where the perpetrators are identifiable, the victims should be able to pursue civil actions against them in order to recover the money.

Due to the cross-border nature of these crimes, regional and international cooperation should be continuously sought. Additionally, due to the success of previous cooperations such as the Interpol Falcon II which dismantled West Africa’s BEC syndicate. However, even with the success of the afore mentioned, without harmonized legal standards and operational frameworks, sustained success remains elusive.

Therefore, African states can start by ratifying and domesticating the Malabo Convention such that they adopt a clear national framework aligned with regional model laws. Further they can strengthen mutual legal assistance and extradition treaties like participating in the Budapest Treaty where feasible.

Promotion of public awareness is also very key in addressing these challenges as the citizens will be less susceptible to these crimes.

In conclusion, cross-border cybercrime poses an escalating threat to Africa’s digital transformation. While national and regional legal frameworks have evolved, enforcement remains patchy and fragmented. Bridging the gap between legal instruments and practical cooperation is essential to ensuring that Africa’s digital borders do not shield cybercriminals from accountability.