HANOI: Typhoon winds and rains that lashed central Vietnam killed five people and left two more missing, according to an official toll, with huge tracts of farmland flooded by the deluge.
Typhoon Wutip made landfall in southern China on Saturday with winds gusting up to 128 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) and was downgraded to a tropical storm after swooping up the Gulf of Tonkin on Vietnam’s flank.
Vietnam’s agriculture ministry said on Saturday evening that three people had been killed in central Quang Tri province, with two more fatalities and two people missing in Quang Binh province.
More than 70,000 hectares (172,000 acres) of cropland were flooded, the ministry said.
Chinese authorities on the southern island of Hainan evacuated thousands of people, closed schools and halted rail services on Friday ahead of the storm’s landfall.
However, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast on Saturday that the storm would “weaken to dissipation” by the end of the weekend.
Natural disasters are becoming more severe and more frequent as a result of climate change. They claimed 514 lives in Vietnam last year, three times more than in 2023, according to the agriculture ministry.
In September, northern Vietnam was devastated by Typhoon Yagi, which killed 345 people and caused an estimated economic loss of $3.3 billion.
Five killed, two missing in Vietnam typhoon floods
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Five killed, two missing in Vietnam typhoon floods
Macron vows stronger cooperation with Nigeria after mass kidnappings
- Macron wrote on X that France “will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations”
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that France will step up cooperation with Nigeria after speaking with his counterpart, as the West African country faces a surge in abductions.
Nigeria has been wracked by a wave of kidnappings in recent weeks, including the capture of over 300 school children two weeks ago that shook Africa’s most populous country, already weary from chronic violence.
Macron wrote on X that the move came at Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s request, saying France “will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations,” while urging other countries to “step up their engagement.”
“No one can remain a spectator” to what is happening in Nigeria, the French president said.
Nigeria has drawn heightened attention from Washington in recent weeks, after US President Donald Trump said in November that the United States was prepared to take military action there to counter the killing of Christians.
US officials, while not contradicting Trump, have since instead emphasized other US actions on Nigeria including security cooperation with the government and the prospect of targeted sanctions.
Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups have plagued Nigeria since the 2014 abduction of 276 school girls in the town of Chibok by Boko Haram militants.
The religiously diverse country is the scene of a number of long-brewing conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims, often indiscriminately.
Many scholars say the reality is more nuanced, with conflicts rooted in struggles for scarce resources rather than directly related to religion.
