Alongside African economic fast-growth, Internet connectivity and the use of mobile technology are expanding rapidly. The result is an increase in the number of people connected to th Internet, especially children who become easy targets to cybercriminals. According to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the number of cybertips, which are reports of online child sexual abuse material shared online, has increased rapidly in West Africa in recent years. Unfortunately, criminal justice actors in West Africa have little experience and understanding of how to address those cybertips, investigate and prosecute them. While other regions of the world have benefited from significant training and support on these subjects, Africa has largely been left behind. Given its young population (in sub-Saharan Africa, 42% is under 14 years old) and the ever-increasing number of people connected to the Internet (in sub-Saharan Africa, 43% of the population used the Internet in 2022), programming and capacity-building efforts need to focus more on Africa.
West Africa is then facing an increase in the amount of Child Sexual Abuse Content being shared online. In 2020, some African countries were reported by the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's as being quite significant and worrying sources of this type of content. For example, for 2022, 6,203 cases were reported in Benin, 27,116 cases in Côte d'Ivoire, 2,917 cases in Togo and 3,893 cases in Senegal. While these figures may seem low, it is important to bear in mind the small size of these countries in terms of population, and their low level of Internet connectivity.
Moreover, online crimes against children often proliferate on the Darkweb and are facilitated by the misuse of crypto currencies, with which national criminal justice officers and law enforcement agencies have little experience and operate in conditions of high insecurity. For these reasons, it is important to work together to build capacity in these areas.
Consequently, UNODC's Global Programme on Cybercrime, following its strategic programme to support the efforts of national authorities in West African countries to fight cybercrime and online child sexual exploitation, organized a regional training workshop on this subject in Abidjan, from the 4th to the 8th of March. This activity was co-organized with UNODC partners such as the FBI, the US Department of Justice and the US embassies in Dakar and Abidjan. Law enforcement officers, Judges and Prosecutors, from Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Togo, were invited to participate to this workshop. The kingdom Morocco, which has extensive experience in the fight against online child sexual abuse, and where UNODC organized 5 workshops on the subject last year, was invited to share its experience and to bring valuable operational knowledge to the table.
As noted by Mrs MAHO Florentine épouse N'DUBUISSI, Deputy Director of the Ivorian justice minister's office during her opening speech, "this threat to children deserves a concerted response, which requires not only a good knowledge of the delinquents' methods, but also the coordination of the agents involved in sharing best practices". And that was certainly the main interest of the workshop.
