UNODC Global Programme on Cybercrime Delivers Holistic Support in Africa through Inter-Agency
and Regional Collaboration
Today, digital evidence is a part of all criminal investigations, from cyber-dependent crimes, like ransomware attacks and online child sexual abuse, to cyber-enabled crimes, like the trafficking of narcotics, wildlife, arms, and trafficking in persons. It is a cross-cutting element that requires special skills and understanding to collect, preserve and review for criminal cases. These skills are needed by law enforcement, and the evidence must be understood by prosecutors and judges, in order to ensure correct evaluation and use of the evidence in court.
Identifying this as a cross-cutting issue, the UNODC Global Programme on Cybercrime in Africa is developing collaborative work with other sections of the UNODC and other United Nations organizations to deliver capacity building training to criminal justice actors that are specialized in the investigation of specific crime types or employed in specialized work in the countering of these crimes.
Dr. Amado de Andres, Regional Representative for West and Central Africa, encourages this collaboration and notes that: “By encouraging our specialists from these different programs and different regions to work together, it allows UNODC and our local partners to have more impact, and deliver more targeted trainings and assistance where it is needed.”
A recent example of this cross-regional and cross-program collaboration was executed in Lagos, Nigeria on February 2023. In order to help the Nigerian Government tackle the significant growth of cyber-enabled trafficking in persons that it has seen in the past years, the UNODC TIP/SOM Programme in Nigeria and the
Global Programme on Cybercrime (Africa program based in Senegal) together organized a specialized training series on cyber intelligence, digital investigations and evidence handling for intelligence officers of the National Agency for The Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Lagos State Neighborhood Agency (LNSA) and prosecutors from the cyber-crime unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMoJ). The highlight of the training was a practical exercise of a digital investigation and evidence handling at a simulated crime scene.
