A Dutch navy ship has rescued 213 Liberian refugees from a stricken ferry off the West African coast, where they had been adrift for days without food or water.
The refugees, including heavily pregnant women and around 80 children, were returning home to Liberia from a refugee camp in Ghana when the passenger ferry's engine failed on Monday.
Dutch troop carrier Rotterdam, part of a United Nations contingent deployed in a peace deal to end some 14 years of civil war, rescued the refugees after the UN alerted it to their plight.
The refugees, some of whom had to be treated for dehydration, were taken into care by the UN refugee agency after their return to the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Food and water on board the 48-metre long ferry ran out as it drifted helplessly about five miles off Liberia's southern coast. It had been due to dock in Monrovia on Tuesday.
The Nigerian-registered ferry's 15 crew were given food and water by the Dutch navy and remained on board their ship to carry out repairs.
Liberia's civil war ended in 1996 but rebels took up arms again in 2000 against then-President Charles Taylor before a peace deal was agreed last August.