Engine trouble aboard the Nigerian-registered El Shaddei left the vessel stranded for four days about five kilometers (three miles) off the Liberian coast near the border with Ivory Coast, UNMIL said in a statement.

The Dutch ship the Rotterdam, which has been in the area since November serving as a supply and hospital ship for UNMIL, was dispatched Wednesday. Dutch Marines secured the vessel and provided food, water and medical assistance to the refugees on board, among them pregnant women and 60 children.

Once the vessel was deemed irreparable, the refugees were transferred on board the Rotterdam and were to be returned to the Liberian capital Monrovia Saturday and taken into the custody of UNHCR, the UN agency for refugees, UNMIL said.

After 14 years of war a peace deal took root in Liberia last August when former president Charles Taylor accepted exile in Nigeria.

Liberia has been under a UN peacekeeping mandate since October. Some 820,000 refugees, more than half of whom are displaced within the country itself, still linger at camps, awaiting the signal that it is safe to return home.

WAR.WIRE