Another provision in the Additional Protocols is meant precisely to deny prisoner-of-war status to … mercenaries. This provision, which was adopted under pressure from African countries, is accepted as a customary rule and is therefore binding. 

[A] provision in the Additional Protocols actually denies the status of prisoner-of-war from a different category of combatant, that of a mercenary. This provision, which was passed through pressure from the African nations, has been accepted as a customary provision and is therefore binding.