UNHCR refugee ship suffers engine failure at sea

A ship chartered by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to repatriate Sierra Leonean refugees from Liberia has suffered engine failure off the West African coast with nearly 200 people on board, a UNHCR spokeswoman said on Monday. Astrid Van Genderen Stort said the Guinea-registered MV Overbeck suffered engine failure and began drifting on Sunday when it was half way between Monrovia and the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown, but two other ships had gone to its aid. She said the Overbeck was carrying 153 Sierra Leonean refugees, 29 crew, one UNHCR employee and three workers of the non-governmental oganisation, Merci. “We informed the US navy and one of their boats, the USS Quarterhole, reached the stalled vessel last night. It is now aligned alongside the vessel,” the UNHCR spokeswoman said. “Another ship belonging to the World Food Programme (WFP), that was on its way from Monrovia to Abidjan, was redirected and arrived at the site this morning. The two boats are planning to drag the stalled vessel to Freetown,” she added. The Overbeck, a former Danish ferry, has been used for repatriating Sierra Leonean refugees since May. It can carry up to 300 people. The engine failure occurred as the aging vessel was running its sixth shuttle trip to Freetown for UNHCR. “The weather has been fair, so the people aboard have managed quite well,” Van Genderen Stort said. On 18 August, a ship chartered by World Vision International to carry relief supplies to Liberia, sunk off the coast of Sierra Leone as it was sailing to Monrovia. The small freighter had left Freetown carrying 15,000 blankets, 4.8 tonnes of soap, plastic buckets, jerry cans and sleeping mats for internally displaced people in Liberia but sank shortly after leaving port. All 22 people on board were rescued.