African Personal Data Legal Ontologies and the Reconstruction of International Humanitarian Law in Multi-Domain Digital Warfare.

Ezekiel, Rindstone Bilabamu (2026) African Personal Data Legal Ontologies and the Reconstruction of International Humanitarian Law in Multi-Domain Digital Warfare. East African Journal of Law and Ethics, 9 (2). pp. 251-273. ISSN 2707-5338

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Abstract

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) explicitly protects civilians and civilian objects during armed conflict. Whether civilian data itself qualifies as a protected civilian object, however, remains contested. This uncertainty has become increasingly problematic in contemporary data-centric warfare, where military operations depend on digital infrastructures, cloud systems, algorithmic targeting, surveillance technologies, and interconnected data ecosystems that process and store civilian information. As armed conflicts increasingly involve multi-domain, data-dependent systems, the absence of a clear legal framework governing the protection of civilian data exposes a significant doctrinal gap within IHL. Using a comparative doctrinal analysis of twelve African jurisdictions, supplemented by the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, this article examines whether African statutory conceptions of personal data provide a basis for reinterpreting civilian-object under IHL. The study identifies a convergent legal ontology that conceptualises personal data as relational, identity-linked, rights-bearing, and embedded within broader digital and socio-technical infrastructures. Although these regimes were not designed to regulate armed conflict, they reveal a consistent legal understanding of personal data as an interest whose compromise may produce significant individual and societal harm. The article argues that this emerging African statutory ontology provides doctrinal foundations for reconstructing IHL civilian-object protection to encompass civilian data as a distinct protected category. By linking personal data to civilian identity, welfare, health, social participation, and essential digital services, the analysis demonstrates that attacks on civilian data may generate consequences comparable to attacks on traditional civilian objects. Recognising civilian data within the protective framework of IHL would strengthen the application of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, and precautionary obligations in contemporary warfare.

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