French troops rescue refugees from ship

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- French troops rescued hundreds of Liberian refugees stranded aboard a broken-down ship off West Africa on Thursday, delivering food and water and towing the vessel back to shore. The Nigeria-registered Dona Elvira's engines broke down Tuesday, leaving some 430 Liberian refugees and 20 crew members drifting 150 miles off Ivory Coast without water and with little or no food.

The refugees were returning to Liberia after fleeing the country during its 14 years of civil war.

On Wednesday, two French army Cougar helicopters flew in food and water supplies to the refugees, said Lt. Col. Bruno Misset, spokesman for the French military in Ivory Coast.

Two French medical teams also were sent to the Dona Elvira -- one aboard a French military ship, the other by helicopter -- and are caring for at least five people who fell seriously ill, he said.

The sick and vulnerable were transferred onto the French ship, while others remained aboard as the Dona Elvira was tugged to shore, said Panos Moumtzis, deputy representative for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Ivory Coast, which coordinated the rescue.

The ship was expected to dock either in the small port town of San Pedro, or Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, Moumtzis said.

The refugees were to be lodged temporarily in Ivory Coast before returning to Liberia, where a peace deal last August ended three years of civil war.

The Dona Elvira had been traveling for over two weeks before its engine failed. It left Lagos, Nigeria, on May 3, stopping briefly to pick up passengers at Accra, Ghana.

It sent out a distress signal Wednesday morning, as strong currents began dragging it away from San Pedro.

There are around 350,000 Liberian refugees in West Africa, according to the UNHCR, which is planning to start a regional repatriation program in October. Around 17,000 refugees have returned to Liberia since the peace deal.