Briefing by the INTERPOL
Briefing by the INTERPOLDate | 29 October 2026
Tomorrow (30 October), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene a session to receive a briefing from the Secretary-General of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL).
Following opening remarks by Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, Permanent Representative of Cameroon to the AU and PSC Chairperson for October, the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), Bankole Adeoye, is expected to deliver an introductory statement. The Secretary-General of INTERPOL, Valdecy Urquiza, is expected to brief the PSC.
This will not be INTERPOL’s first briefing to the PSC, although its previous briefings have generally taken place in the context of the Council’s sessions on transnational organised crime, which has been one of its standing thematic agenda items since 2019. INTERPOL last briefed the Council at its 1345th session, held on 6 May 2026, under the theme ‘African strategies for combating transnational organised crime in Africa.’ It was the organisation’s Special Representative to the AU who delivered a statement. Representatives of INTERPOL also addressed the Council during its previous sessions on transnational organised crime in Africa, including the 845th (2019), 1082nd (2022) and 1279th (2025) sessions.
At its 1345th session, the PSC directed the AU Commission, working in close collaboration with African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL), to establish a structured and integrated continental mechanism inspired by INTERPOL’s system of notices, coupled with an African ‘continental warrant’ framework. During its 1082nd session, the PSC also requested AFRIPOL, in collaboration with INTERPOL, to develop in-depth, research-based regional information papers on combating transnational organised crime. At its 1279th session, the PSC requested the AU Commission to coordinate with AFRIPOL, INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and other relevant stakeholders in developing tailored responses to the specific geographical and logistical profiles of each criminal corridor, including through joint mobile units and specialised port and desert surveillance capacities.
At tomorrow’s session, the Secretary-General of INTERPOL is expected to brief the PSC on the activities of the organisation across the continent to combat transnational crime and terrorism, its support to Member States’ law enforcement agencies, and ways of strengthening its partnership with the AU, particularly its relevant institutions, such as AFRIPOL and Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA).
Against this background, the Secretary-General is likely to highlight the longstanding cooperation between INTERPOL and the AU on matters such as the sharing of resources and expertise and the development of joint responses to Africa’s policing needs. This cooperation was formalised through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the AU and INTERPOL in 2011, followed by a further cooperation agreement in 2019 aimed at ensuring complementarity between INTERPOL and AFRIPOL, avoiding duplication of efforts among common member countries and promoting synergies.
In May 2016, INTERPOL also established the Office of the Special Representative to the AU to serve as a liaison and strengthen cooperation between the two organisations. The INTERPOL Support Programme for the AU in relation to AFRIPOL (ISPA) was launched in 2020 for an initial three-year period (Phase 1) to assist AFRIPOL in developing its functions across the continent. The programme was subsequently extended until December 2026 under its second phase. With the second phase set to conclude in two months, tomorrow’s session may also provide an opportunity to review the progress registered and discuss the future of the programme.
The ISPA Programme supports AFRIPOL in five key areas: strengthening its governance and legal framework; enhancing its capacity to combat terrorism, organised crime, cybercrime and financial crime; establishing secure information-sharing and communication systems through INTERPOL’s I-24/7 network; strengthening criminal intelligence analysis through equipment, training and mentoring; and building the capacities of AFRIPOL and INTERPOL’s common member countries through needs assessments and targeted workshops. Under the ISPA Programme, various forms of technical assistance have been provided to AFRIPOL and Member States’ law enforcement agencies to strengthen their capacity to combat transnational crime across the continent. These include the provision of advanced cybercrime investigation equipment and comprehensive training to AFRIPOL and at least 36 African member countries, covering cybercrime investigation tools, blockchain analysis software and digital forensic capabilities.
In addition, the Secretary-General is likely to highlight other achievements of the programme, notably the series of joint AFRIPOL–INTERPOL operations that demonstrate growing cooperation in combating transnational organised crime, terrorism, cybercrime, human trafficking and illicit trade across Africa. Beginning with Operation Flash-IPPA (2021), the first jointly coordinated pan-African police operation targeting pharmaceutical crime, cooperation expanded through operations such as WEKA II and Flash-WEKA (2022–2023), which collectively resulted in over 1,300 arrests and the rescue of more than 1,500 trafficking victims. (For more details on the programme and its achievements, see here)
Cybercrime operations, notably Africa Cyber Surge (2022–2023) and Serengeti (2024), disrupted thousands of criminal networks, with Serengeti alone resulting in 1,006 arrests across 19 countries. Counterterrorism operations, including Flash-ARISE (2024) and Catalyst (2025), strengthened cross-border intelligence sharing and led to 120 arrests. Other significant initiatives, including First Light (2024), Djembe (2025) and the Nigerian inter-agency operation (2024), further demonstrated the value of coordinated law enforcement, intelligence sharing and cooperation among national agencies.
The Secretary-General is particularly expected to highlight the latest operation, Operation Serengeti III (2026), coordinated by INTERPOL between 29 June and 31 August 2026, which brought together law enforcement agencies from 21 countries to combat cyber-enabled fraud, ransomware, business email compromise, online scams and digital extortion. The operation resulted in 1,462 arrests, the disruption of 10,909 malicious networks and the recovery of over USD 105 million in illicit funds. It also identified 65,929 victims and criminal activities linked to financial losses exceeding USD 385 million. Major achievements included the dismantling of transnational investment and pension fraud networks in Uganda, illegal cryptocurrency mining operations in Angola, and phishing, investment fraud and money-laundering schemes in Nigeria, alongside cybercrime investigations in Tanzania, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Supported by intelligence sharing, technical expertise and private-sector partnerships, the operation demonstrated the importance of coordinated international law enforcement efforts in addressing increasingly sophisticated and borderless cybercrime threats across Africa.
The briefing may also provide an opportunity to explore ways of building on these achievements and further strengthening cooperation between INTERPOL and the AU, particularly AFRIPOL. It may also address operational challenges affecting their cooperation and identify areas requiring additional technical and institutional support.
Yet, it is of interest for the PSC that tomorrow’s session is not confined to the work of INTERPOL on the continent in relation to fighting transnational crime in general. It is of particular significance that it addresses the intersection of organised crime and conflicts in Africa. As such, from the perspective of the mandate of the PSC, tomorrow’s session is important for PSC members to discuss how the expertise from and the collaboration with INTERPOL can best be leveraged in integrating analysis of the impact of transnational crime on specific conflict situations and the tools that need to be used to address such impact as part of peace processes for such conflict situations.
The expected outcome of the session is a communiqué. The PSC is expected to reaffirm the importance of the cooperation between INTERPOL and the AU, particularly AFRIPOL, as demonstrated by the various capacity-building initiatives and joint operations involving Member States’ law enforcement agencies, including the latest Operation Serengeti III. The Council may also follow up on its previous decisions, particularly those concerning the establishment of a structured and integrated continental mechanism, the development of in-depth, research-based regional information papers on combating transnational organised crime, and the establishment of tailored responses to the specific geographical and logistical profiles of criminal corridors, including through joint mobile units and specialised port and desert surveillance capacities. In this regard, the PSC may encourage INTERPOL to provide the necessary technical and operational support to the AU Commission and AFRIPOL to facilitate the implementation of these decisions. The Council may encourage INTERPOL’s regular briefings during its annual thematic sessions on transnational organised crime in Africa. Given the increasing intersection between organised crime and conflicts, the Council may request that the AU Commission, working in coordination with AFRIPOL and INTERPOL, present a report on how transnational organised crime shapes current conflicts and affects the stability of states on the continent, with recommendations on how to address the impact of organised crime on peace and security, including the tools to be deployed as part of peace processes.