The Systemic Recruitment of Young Africans into Foreign Conflicts and the Violation of Sovereignty 

This article analyses the system for recruiting young Africans into armed conflicts outside their countries of origin Libya, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Greater Terrorism Area as the product of a threefold structural failure: the failure of African states to provide economic prospects for their young people; the organised demand of foreign belligerents who deliberately externalise death; and the limitations of international humanitarian law in addressing the issue. It introduces the original concept of ‘juvenile substitute mercenarism’ by establishing its historical continuity with the Senegalese Tirailleurs of the colonial era. Finally, the article examines four principal theatres in which fighters are recruited and formulates an architecture of operational recommendations at four levels: normative, institutional, state, and military.