viet

United Nations humanitarian and development officials are monitoring the situation in the mountains of northern Viet Nam, where heavy rains resulting from a recent tropical storm have killed dozens of people and caused a series of flash floods and landslides.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his profound sadness today after learning of the death of the former Vietnamese prime minister Vo Van Kiet.

Praising Viet Nam’s efforts to reduce rural poverty, the head of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today signed a $35 million loan agreement to expand market access and develop businesses for tens of thousands of small farmers in the Mekong Delta.

As part of ongoing United Nations efforts to make itself more efficient and responsive to national needs, Viet Nam today was selected as the first pilot country in the “One UN” reform programme, involving six UN agencies working more closely together to avoid duplication and fragmentation.

United Nations agencies today sent three joint assessment missions to regions of Viet Nam struck by Typhoon Xangsane, which damaged nearly 230,000 houses and forced the evacuation of some 40,000 people.

Viet Nam, Cambodia and the United Nations refugee agency have agreed to further cooperate to resolve the situation of Montagnards who cross the border into Cambodia, after holding their first full meeting to discuss the issue since signing a joint agreement last year.

The United Nations refugee agency today rejected a recent report from an international non-governmental human rights organization alleging that Vietnamese authorities have been detaining, interrogating and torturing Montagnard asylum seekers who have returned to Viet Nam from Cambodia.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has joined 13 other international organizations in a unique partnership to improve water supply, sanitation and hygiene for rural communities and schools in Viet Nam.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today it has “no serious concerns” over the conditions of around 200 Montagnards who have returned to Viet Nam from Cambodia, as a senior official from the agency visited Hanoi and agreed with the Government to continue joint cooperation to resolve the issue of the ethnic minority.

Backed by United Nations agencies, Viet Nam has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus as a public health problem in a victory over a scourge that used to kill some 20,000 Vietnamese babies annually before the age of one month.