DAKAR, Jan 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ivory Coast police on Monday vowed to ramp up efforts to stop child trafficking after rescuing 137 children from forced labour and sex work in the first major operation in several years.

ABIDJAN, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's cocoa growing regions stayed hot and dry over the past week as the main crop harvest started to slow down, farmers told Reuters on Monday.

PARIS (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron will press five West African leaders on Monday to denounce anti-French sentiment in their countries over Paris's handling of an insurgency by Islamist militants, or risk France withdrawing troops from the region.

MOSCOW/CAIRO (Reuters) - Libya's warring leaders were due to hold peace talks in Moscow on Monday with Russia and Turkey urging the rivals to sign a binding truce to end a nine-month-old war and pave the way for a settlement that would stabilise the North African country.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou has replaced the head of the army after two of the country's deadliest attacks in living memory killed at least 160 soldiers and prompted a rethink in the battle against jihadist groups, the government said.

LISBON (Reuters) - Angolan courts have not taken any action to have billionaire ex-first daughter Isabel Dos Santos' assets seized abroad but "will not hesitate to resort to such mechanisms if necessary", a prosecution spokesman told Reuters.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Three teachers were killed near Kenya's border with Somalia in a suspected attack by al Shabaab militants early on Monday, police said, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of assaults by the group in Kenya since the New Year.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A ceasefire in Libya initiated by Turkey and Russia saw a lull in heavy fighting and air strikes on Sunday, though both warring factions accused each other of violating the truce as skirmishes continued around the capital Tripoli.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election in May or June despite concerns about security and logistics, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Sunday.

BISSAU (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau's Supreme Court on Sunday rejected a challenge against Umaro Cissoko Embalo's victory in last month's election run-off by the defeated candidate, who complained of fraud.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said the heads of Libya's two warring factions will hold talks in Moscow on Monday, the Interfax news agency reported.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election in May or June despite security and logistic concerns, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Sunday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Libyan peace talks will be held in Berlin, as Turkey and Russia appealed to the north African nation's warring factions to enter a ceasefire.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - The death toll from Thursday's attack by suspected jihadists on a Niger army base has risen to at least 89, four security sources said, surpassing a raid last month that killed 71 soldiers as the deadliest against Nigerien forces in years.

BENGHAZI (Reuters) - Libyan eastern forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar announced on Saturday a ceasefire in the western region, which includes the capital Tripoli, starting 00:01 a.m. on Sunday (22:01 GMT) and the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) agreed to the truce.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's public sector workers on Friday rejected a government offer to nearly double salaries for the lowest paid employees because it was not enough to cushion them against soaring prices, their union said.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger will launch a new military offensive against Islamist militants after their latest attack on an army base killed at least 25 soldiers, the defence minister said on Friday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Killings, rapes and other barbaric violence committed by an ethnic armed group in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo against a rival group may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly even genocide, the United Nations said on Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Angolan billionaire and former first daughter Isabel Dos Santos decried a New Year's Eve court order to freeze her vast assets as a "witch hunt" engineered to weaken her father's influence and distract from economic failures.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Swarms of desert locusts have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into eastern and northern Kenya, posing a threat to food production and grazing land, its agriculture minister said on Friday.