A ship carrying up to 180 Liberian refugees that has been stranded off West Africa for nearly two weeks is in distress near the Togolese coast, port officials in the capital Lome said today.
The ship had not been heard from since it left the port of Cotonou on Monday after being turned away by Benin authorities.
Togolese port authorities said the boat's propellers were entangled in a fishing net. A technical team has been sent this morning because the ship is in distress, a senior port official told reporters.
Nigeria earlier this week offered its passengers sanctuary after it spent nearly two weeks searching for a port which would accept them and the ship, the Swedish-registered Alnar, had been presumed to be heading for Lagos.
But Nigerian and UN officials said yesterday there had been no contact at all with the boat, and it was not clear whether the ship's captain was aware of the offer.
The refugees had failed to win permission from Benin to disembark there and were refused entry to Ghana last week after leaving the Liberian capital Monrovia the week before.
Nigeria said it would allow them to disembark at any of its ports on humanitarian grounds.
The Liberians are believed to be fleeing renewed fighting in the north of their country which has revived fears of a return to the brutal civil war of the 1990s.