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DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Facing abuse and violence in Libya, thousands of African children flee to Italy across the Mediterranean Sea, most of them alone and unprepared for Europe, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

The majority of Africa's child migrants leave home without their parents' knowledge - often due to domestic violence or family disputes - and do not aim to go to Europe, but plan to find work in nearby countries, a UNICEF study found.

Yet hundreds of refugee and migrant children told UNICEF in Italy that being kidnapped, arrested and held in prison in Libya, as well as witnessing violence towards other migrants, had compelled them to take the risky sea crossing to Europe.

At least 12,200 children arrived in Italy in the first half of the year, all but a few having traveled alone, UNICEF said.

"Concerns are growing about unaccompanied children on the move, especially in Libya," said UNICEF spokesman Patrick Rose.

The voyage from Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy - often on flimsy boats run by people smugglers - has become the main route to Europe for migrants from Africa after a European Union crackdown last year on sea crossings from Turkey.

At least 20,000 migrants are being detained in Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Many are extorted for money by smugglers and gangs, and rising numbers are traded - in what they call slave markets - for forced labor and sexual exploitation, the IOM says.

"The situation for migrants (in Libya) is very dangerous ... there is an extreme level of violence at the hands of kidnappers," Rose told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

The UNICEF study, based on interviews with 850 children aged 15 to 17, found that less than half of those who arrived in Italy intended to go to Europe, and that many of their journeys were fragmented and sometimes lasted longer than two years.

More than 7 million children in West and Central Africa are on the move due to violence, poverty and climate change, making up over half of all migrants in the region, according to UNICEF.

Yet most head to other African nations, and only one in five attempt the perilous journey to Europe, the U.N. agency says.

"What is striking about this study is it shows for the first time that there are overwhelmingly far more reasons that push children to leave their homes, than have been previously understood, and fewer pull factors that lure them to Europe," said Afshan Khan, UNICEF director for Europe and Central Asia.

Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org

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Migrant abuse in Libya drives African children across sea to Europe: UN - Reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of Libya's U.N.-backed government will hold talks in Paris this week with a powerful military commander who has so far rejected his authority, a diplomatic source said.

The talks between Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and commander Khalifa Haftar are aimed at stabilizing the oil-producing country, which has been mired in chaos and fighting since rebels toppled strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Western governments are pushing the U.N.-backed political agreement that installed Serraj's Government of National Unity, but Haftar, whose forces have gained ground in the east of the country, has refused to accept the government's legitimacy.

The two rivals held talks in Abu Dhabi in May, the first in more than a year and a half.

"I know Haftar is in Paris already, Serraj is due to arrive soon. They are aiming for Tuesday," the diplomatic source told Reuters.

A French government spokesman had no comment, and officials with Serraj's government did not return calls. But Libya's Nabaa TV cited a Libyan government source saying Serraj would arrive in Paris on Tuesday.

Years of turmoil in Libya have allowed Islamist State militants and people-traffickers to thrive: the North African country is the main point of embarcation for migrants attempting the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean to Europe.

With no national army, brigades of former rebels who once fought together to oust Gaddafi have become powerful competing factions. Each is backed by rival political leaders in fluid alliances locked in a struggle for control.

Serraj is loosely supported by a coalition of armed brigades in the west of the country, but even in the capital Tripoli his government has struggled to impose its authority.

Diplomats say the Paris talks will focus on agreeing on key principles - that the political accord is the way forward, that no military solution exists, and Libya's military should be under civilian control.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants France to play a more active role in tackling the Libyan crisis. He plans to meet Haftar and Serraj, the source said, adding an encounter could help bring around the commander by offering him "some form of legitimacy".

The idea would be to bring them into an agreement allowing the U.N. to implement the peace deal and set up elections.

Libya's neighbors and regional powers have often disagreed on how to resolve the crisis. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are closer to Haftar and his self-styled campaign against Isamist militants. Worried about security, Algeria and Tunisia push a more inclusive approach.

Even in the European Union, splits have emerged over how best to bring Haftar into the fold. French officials fear Islamic State militants - who were driven from Libya's coastal city of Sirte last year - and other jihadists could try to exploit the country's power vacuum to regroup there again after losing substantial ground in Syria and Iraq.

Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Mark Trevelyan

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Libyan premier, rival eastern commander to meet in Paris: source - Reuters

Limiting oil output from Nigeria and Libya wont be on the agenda when OPEC and other producers meet on Monday, with both African nations saying theyll need to keep pumping at a higher level before they can joina global effort to stem a supply glut, according to two people familiar with the planned talks.

Nigeria is ready to cap or even reduce supply if it can maintain output of 1.8 million barrels a day, said the two people, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Libya isnt planning to join any agreement to curb output until it reaches its target of 1.25 million barrels a day by December, they said.Producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are gatheringin St. Petersburg, Russia, to assess the effectiveness of an international accord to pare output.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih met with delegations from Libya and Nigeria over the weekend to discuss their production recovery plans, including the challenges they currently face, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Sunday in a statement on its website.

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Both African OPEC members were exempt from the cuts agreement, which took effect in January, because of their struggles to restore production amid internal strife. Their increased output in recent months has prompted speculation that OPEC may seek to limit their production to help stabilize oil markets.Brent crude has declined 15 percent this year on concerns that rising output from Nigeria and Libya, as well as the U.S., is offsetting the cuts that OPEC and allied producers including Russia extended through March.

The oil market will need more Libyan and Nigerian crude as it re-balances at a faster rate later in the year after a slow start, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo told reporters on Sunday in St. Petersburg.

The re-balancing process may be going on at a slower pace than we earlier projected, but it is on course, and its bound to accelerate in the second half, Barkindo said. Oil demand is expected to grow by 2 million barrels a day in the second half, he said, without specifying if he was comparing that with the same period of 2016 or the first half of this year.

Nigeria boosted its output to 1.75 million barrels a day in June from 1.5 million barrels in December, while Libyas production climbed to 840,000 barrels a day from 630,000 barrels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

We will of course discuss the situation in all countries, including Libya and Nigeria,Russias Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters. Russia has reduced output by 300,000 barrels a day since October, in line with its agreement to cut production.

Ministers on Monday will discuss other ways to accommodate the recovering output in Libya and Nigeria, one of the people familiar said. Libyas representative at talks on Saturday told a committee of OPEC and non-OPEC members that the country will struggle to reach output of 1.25 million barrels a day and keep it there, at least for the rest of this year, according to both people familiar.

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Libya, Nigeria Oil Output Caps Are Said to Be Ruled Out for Now - Bloomberg

The corpses have been shipped to Misrata, a city further to the west whose forces led the fight to defeat Islamic State in Sirte in December.

A general view shows destruction in Sirte's Al-Giza Al-Bahriya district on 20 December 2016 after they drove the Islamic State (IS) group out of its Libyan stronghold. Picture: AFP.

MISRATA - Seven months after Libyan forces defeated Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte, hundreds of bodies of foreign militants still lie stored in freezers as authorities negotiate with other governments to decide what to do with them, local officials say.

The corpses have been shipped to Misrata, a city further to the west whose forces led the fight to defeat Islamic State in Sirte in December.

Allowing the bodies to be shipped home to countries such as Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt would be sensitive for the governments involved, wary of acknowledging how many of their citizens left to fight as jihadists in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

"Our team removed hundreds of bodies," a member of the Misrata organised crime unit dealing with the bodies told Reuters, his face masked to conceal his identity because of security concerns.

"This is the main operation which allows us to preserve the bodies, document and photograph them and also collect DNA samples."

The crime unit said it was awaiting a decision from the Prosecutor General, who was in talks with foreign governments over the return of the bodies.

Islamic State has now been defeated in its main stronghold in the Iraqi city of Mosul and is under pressure in its base in the Syrian city of Raqqa. But at the height of its territorial control it attracted recruits from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe to its ranks.

In Tunisia alone, officials say more than 3,000 citizens left to fight in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Tunisians who trained in militant camps in Libya carried out two gun attacks on foreign tourists in 2015 that battered Tunisia's vital tourism industry.

Islamic State took over Sirte in 2015, taking advantage of infighting between rival Libyan armed factions and using the city as a base from which to attack oil fields and other nearby towns.

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Hundreds of Islamic State corpses await repatriation from Libya - Eyewitness News

The Libyan Beach Volleyball Championship concluded Libya tournament on Friday in the coastal city of Zuwara, west of the capital Tripoli. The tournament that took off on Thursday was organized and sponsored by Aljazeera Sport's Club and under the auspices of the Libyan General Beach Ball Union. 13 teams from Zuwarah, Tripoli, Sabha, Zliten and Misrata participated the first phase of the tournament with the system of point collecting, awaiting the second phase that will takeplace in Benghazi in the coming period, while the final phase will be held in Misrata.

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The "Tripoli Movement" organized a protest in the Algeria square in central Tripoli on Saturday to denounce the aggression of Zionists on the occupied holy city of Al-Quds in Palestine. The protesters held banners condemning the repeated attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They also declared their solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of the brutal occupation and the Zionist assault on the holy mosque.

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Dignity Operation air force conducted Sunday fresh airstrikes on Derna for the third consecutive day, leaving material damage to civilians houses but no casualties.

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has mobilized forces in Sirte and is preparing to repel a large scale and imminent attack from ISIS militants, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Brigadier General Mohammed Al-Ghosari, has declared.

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The management of Tobruk Water Desalination Plant said in a statement on Saturday that the of the operating materials needed to keep it active, in addition to the growing age of the plant that has gone nearly 17 years without carrying out any large-scale refurbishment.

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The National Oil Corporation announced the successful export of its third shipment from the floating oil terminal of Gaza in the offshore Bori oil field. The terminal was operated during the first quarter of this year, according to the company's page on Facebook, which added that the export operation was carried out by Libyan crews without any presence of foreign engineers as in the previous two oil exports.

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The Etihad Handball Team is continuing its ongoing external training camp in Tunisia in preparation for the final match of the 2016-2017 Libyan League to be held in Gharyan later this month. The 10-day training in Sousse has seen most players selected to play in the squad this season under the supervision of Libyan coach Abdel Salam al-Ahmar.

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A meeting of the reconciliation committee between Zintan and Mashashiya was held on Saturday in the Municipality of Hawamad in the Nafusa Mountain. The meeting was attended by members of reconciliation committees from different cities and regions, in the hope to keep track of reconciliation progress and to form further sub-committees to deal with the problems and security breaches that occur from time to time in the region.

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Al-Kufra security forces have arrested 60 illegal immigrants trying to infiltrate into the city and cross the sand barrier to the north of Kufra at the tri-border crossing with Egypt and Sudan. The border areas adjacent to Kufra are a transit point hotbed for smuggling and illegal immigration to and from Libya via a three-way border which extends for hundreds of kilometers.

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News Roundup - Sun, Jul 23, 2017 - The Libya Observer