VINH, Vietnam: Tens of thousands of residents were being evacuated from coastal Vietnam on Monday, as Typhoon Kajiki barrelled toward landfall expected to lash the country’s central belt with gales of around 160 kmh.
The typhoon – the fifth to affect Vietnam this year – is currently at sea, roiling the Gulf of Tonkin with waves of up to 9.5 meters (31 feet).
More than 325,500 residents in five coastal provinces have been slated for evacuation to schools and public buildings converted into temporary shelters, authorities said.
The waterfront city of Vinh was deluged overnight, its streets largely deserted by morning with most shops and restaurants closed as residents and business-owners sandbagged their property entrances.
By dawn nearly 30,000 people had been evacuated from the region, as 16,000 military personnel were mobilized.
Two domestic airports were shut and all fishing ships in the typhoon’s path have been called back to harbor.
“I have never heard of a typhoon of this big scale coming to our city,” said 66-year-old Le Manh Tung at a Vinh indoor sports stadium, where evacuated families dined on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.
“I am a bit scared, but then we have to accept it because it’s nature – we cannot do anything,” he said, among only a few dozen people camped out at the evacuation site on Monday morning.
The typhoon is expected to make landfall around 1:00 p.m. (0600 GMT) with winds of 157 kilometers per hour (98 miles per hour), Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.
Scientists say human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns that can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
“Normally we get storms and flooding, but never this big,” said 52-year-old evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan.
The typhoon’s power is due to dramatically dissipate after it makes landfall.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said conditions suggested “an approaching weakening trend as the system approaches the continental shelf of the Gulf of Tonkin where there is less ocean heat content.”
Over a dozen domestic Vietnamese flights were canceled on Sunday, while China’s tropical resort of Hainan evacuated around 20,000 residents as the typhoon passed its south.
The island’s main city, Sanya, closed scenic areas and halted business operations.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
Economic losses have been estimated at more than $21 million.
Vietnam suffered $3.3 billion in economic losses last September as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which swept across the country’s north and caused hundreds of fatalities.
Vietnam evacuates tens of thousands ahead of Typhoon Kajiki
https://arab.news/buqm6
Vietnam evacuates tens of thousands ahead of Typhoon Kajiki
- The typhoon – the fifth to affect Vietnam this year – is currently at sea
- More than 325,500 residents in five coastal provinces have been slated for evacuation
UN peacekeepers defy South Sudan military’s order to leave opposition-held town
JUBA, South Sudan: The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said Monday that it would not comply with a government order to shut down its base in Akobo, an opposition stronghold near the Ethiopian border where tens of thousands of refugees have fled.
On Friday, the South Sudanese army ordered UN peacekeepers as well as NGOs and civilians to vacate the town ahead of a planned assault.
But the mission refused to leave and said it would provide “a protective presence for civilians” in the town, adding that the safety and security of its personnel “must be fully respected at all times.”
The UN Mission said it was engaging “intensively with national, state and local stakeholders” regarding this order. “Any military operations in and around Akobo gravely endanger the safety and security of civilians,” said mission chief Anita Kiki Gbeho.
The South Sudanese government has been fighting opposition forces since a 2018 peace deal broke down about a year ago.
A dramatic escalation took place in December 2025, when opposition forces seized several government outposts in northern Jonglei. A government counter-offensive repelled their forces a month later and displaced over 280,000 people. Tens of thousands have sought refuge in Akobo, where a small contingent of UN peacekeepers is stationed.
Fearing the looming government assault on Akobo, humanitarian workers were evacuated over the weekend, and a mass exodus of the population has also begun.
Local officials contacted by the The Associated Press said fleeing civilians faced danger and widespread shortages of essential supplies. Dual Diew, the Akobo County health director, who has fled to Ethiopia, said there were 84 wounded patients at the hospital. “We have most of them with us here now,” he said, adding that they lack medicine and basic nursing equipment.
Christophe Garnier, the leader of Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan said the organization had to evacuate its staff from Akobo on Saturday and learned of the subsequent looting of its hospital and the ransacking of its office.
“People in Akobo must now either flee without protection or remain at risk of being killed, while losing access to health care and other essential services,” he said.
The three Western governments that have played a major role in the peace process — the U.S, UK, and Norway — sent a letter to President Kiir on Monday urging that the army’s evacuation order be revoked and warning of “further deaths, displacement and suffering for the South Sudanese people” if the offensive on Akobo is implemented.
