Maritime authorities have announced that rescue workers currently carrying out a massive search and rescue operation following Saturday’s shipwreck off the coast of Marshall City, outside Monrovia, have rescued another crash victim.
The Government of Liberia announced early Sunday, that Niko Ivanka, a locally registered cargo vessel, encountered a distress situation hours after it sailed off the port of Monrovia on Saturday, 17 July, headed for Harper City, in Liberia’s southeastern Maryland County.
The Niko Ivanka was underway to Harper, about 6 nautical miles off the coast of Marshall City, outside Monrovia, when it reportedly begun to take in water, according to Maritime Commissioner Eugene Lenn Nagbe.
At the time of the crash, the vessel, which officials say was not licensed to carry passengers, had onboard unspecified number of tons of cargo and several passengers, 11 of whom, including a female, one Chinese and a Swedish, Captain Jack, believed to be the Captain of the Niko Ivanka, were all previously rescued, while many others are still presumed missing.
But in its latest briefing on the ship accident, the Liberia Maritime Authority announced late Monday that rescue workers from the Liberia Coast Guard working in collaboration with Sea Shepherd, an American non-governmental, non-profit marine conservation group, have found another survivor from the shipwreck.
Maritime authorities did not disclose the identity of the individual, but indicated that the latest survivor found by the government’s search and rescue team is a Chinese national, making it two Chinese rescued so far, and puts the total of survivors from the ship accident, to 12 people.