Controller General Abdoul Wahabou Sall, Deputy Director General of the Senegalese National Police, recently welcomed a delegation from Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The meeting aimed to explore new avenues of collaboration in the field of digital security.
Discussions mainly focused on the protection of children and adolescents on social media, as well as strengthening operational cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the American company. Representatives from Meta expressed their willingness to support the National Police through training programs and capacity-building initiatives.
This partnership is expected to lead to concrete actions benefiting specialized units, particularly the division responsible for combating cybercrime. Technical training on digital tools and on Meta’s portal dedicated to judicial authorities is planned, in order to optimize the handling of official requests and the management of reported content.
This initiative is part of a broader trend observed across the African continent, where governments are strengthening partnerships with tech giants to address the rapid expansion of online usage. Faced with the rise in cyber fraud, online harassment, and the spread of illegal content, Senegalese authorities are seeking to adapt their investigative methods to a digital environment that has become central to many offenses.
In recent months, several public institutions have also been targeted by cyberattacks. In October, the tax platform was hacked, followed in February by a cyberattack against the Department of File Automation (DAF), which is responsible, among other things, for issuing national identity cards and passports and managing biometric data. This intrusion led to a temporary suspension of the production of identity cards.
Cooperation with digital platforms therefore appears to be a strategic lever for more quickly identifying perpetrators of offenses and accelerating the handling of reports. It also illustrates the evolving role of security forces, which are now active both on the ground and in cyberspace.
However, the question remains whether Senegal has sufficient resources to meet these challenges.
In its Global Cybersecurity Index 2024, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) awarded Senegal a score of 67.17 out of 100. This result places the country in Tier 3, which includes states that have achieved at least 55/100 and demonstrate an initial commitment to cybersecurity, with actions underway in a moderate number of areas.
Since that assessment, the authorities have launched the “Technological New Deal” program, with a budget of $1.7 billion, aiming to turn the country into a technological hub by 2034. At its launch in February 2025, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye affirmed his commitment to building a sovereign digital space, by strengthening national cyber resilience, securing critical infrastructure, protecting sensitive data, and gradually reducing dependence on foreign solutions.
