UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – The United Nations released, yesterday, two million U.S. dollars, to kickstart Vietnam’s response to Typhoon Yagi’s widespread devastation, in which 290 people were killed, UN humanitarians said.
“It was reported that more than 290 deaths and damage to 237,000 homes, with three million people affected,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.
OCHA said that, Acting UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, allocated the two million dollars from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), as seed money, to support the government’s humanitarian response efforts.
“The funding will go to the International Organisation for Migration, the UN Development Programme and UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund), to meet immediate life-saving needs, in the most affected provinces of Yen Bai and Lao Cai,” the office said.
OCHA said, the CERF-funded response will focus on emergency shelter and water, sanitation and hygiene assistance, focusing on communities with high levels of pre-existing vulnerabilities, to meet the needs of the people most affected by the disaster.
The typhoon hit northern Vietnam two weeks ago, skirting the capital of Hanoi, in the early hours of Sept 7.– NNN-XINHUA
