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A French court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a French-Vietnamese woman, who sought to sue Bayer-Monsanto and 13 other agrochemical companies for their role in supplying the highly toxic herbicide chemical Agent Orange and other chemicals used by the United States military during the Vietnam War, Politico reported.

The plaintiff, Tran To Nga, has sued the multinational and others for the supply of Agent Orange that was used during the war to destroy forests protecting communist Viet Cong fighters.

Nga herself was exposed to Agent Orange in 1966 when she was covering the war as a journalist. She claims to have suffered from a number of health issues attributed to the chemicals, including tuberculosis, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

Her daughter, born in 1969, died of a heart defect at 17 months, and her other daughters and grandchildren also suffer from severe health problems.

In 2021, she lost an initial case when a French court ruled that the agrochemical companies were immune from prosecution because they were working on behalf of a sovereign government.

On Thursday, the Paris Court of Appeal used the same argument to reject her appeal, declaring the case “inadmissible” due to the companies’ immunity on jurisdictional grounds.

Despite the court’s decision, Nga vowed to continue the fight and plans to appeal to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest appeals court,

It is estimated that four million people across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were exposed to Agent Orange, 20 million gallons of which were dropped by US forces between 1962 and 1971, Agence France-Presse added.

The Vietnamese government has said the chemical caused birth defects in 150,000 children.

Observers said the case underscores some of the discrepancies over who has received compensation as a result of the use of Agent Orange.

While US military veterans, including those from Australia and South Korea, have been awarded compensation for the effects of the toxic herbicide, Vietnamese victims have not.

In 2005, a US court dismissed a case brought by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.