Misrata is to hand over the last seven Sudanese children it still holds to the Sudanese consul in Tripoli so they can be returned home. The parents of the seven, who were taken into custody in Sirte last year, were all killed fighting for the so-called Islamic State.
The seven are the last of what was a larger number of Sudanese children caputured last year. The others, whose families were known, have already been handed over and returned to Sudan. It is believed that there have been difficulties tracing the families of the seven.
The children will be handed over to the Sudanese consul in a ceremony in Misrata on Sunday.
Efforts to return some 25 children born to Tunisians involved in IS are taking longer to deal with. The children, mostly under five years of age, are being held in jail in Tripoli with their mothers. The fathers are all dead.
There have been moves by the Tunisian authorities to resolve the issue and in April a delegation from the Tunisian parliament visited Tripoli to try and have the children returned. The issue was also one of the main subjects discussed in May between Tunisia’s foreign minister, Khemaies Jhinaoui, and Presidency Coucnil head Faiez Serraj.
