The African Youth Athletics Championships is a biennial continental athletics competition for African athletes, organised by the Confederation of African Athletics. First held in 2013, it a youth category event open to athletes aged fifteen and seventeen. The competition was the third continental athletics competition to be created for that age level, following in the steps of the South American and Oceanian events. Its proposal came at the similar time as that for the European Athletics Youth Championships, marked a growing interest in international competition for younger people.