Ship with Liberians heads east

A Swedish registered ship with an estimated 186 Liberians on board, which had been drifting with difficulty off the Togolese coast, headed east on Friday after receiving fresh food and water, news sources said. The MV Alnar Stockholm had been refused entry by the authorities in Ghana and Benin since it set out from Monrovia on 1 June. It left the port of Cotonou on Monday and was expected at the Nigerian port of Lagos to the east after the authorities there said they would allow the ship to dock. Alnar was later found drifting in distress off the coast of Togo with little fuel, its propellers entangled in fishing nets and passengers in desperate need of food and water. A journalist in Lome, the Togolese capital, told IRIN that the ship’s passengers got medical attention and fresh provisions on Friday before being asked by the port authorities to head back to Cotonou to pick up more fuel. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it remained “very concerned” about ship’s passengers.