From the 1960s to the 2000s, the overthrow of legitimate and illegal governments, the struggle for power of various groups, etc. took place in Africa. In almost all known cases, mercenaries from different countries were involved in such incidents. Discussions about the need to take control of such a phenomenon as mercenarism have served as an impetus for the emergence and development of both national and regional legislation, first in the field of banning mercenarism and then in regulating the activities of private military and security companies. This article examines the legal regulation of the status of private military and security companies in the most relevant cases on the African continent in order to highlight the specific elements and the need to ensure the implementation of the adopted normative provisions.