LAO NATIONAL UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE PROGRAMME (UXO LAO)

The Most Bombed Country in the World

Lao PDR has the unwanted distinction of being per capita the most heavily bombed nation in the world. The ordnance dropped include more than 270 million submunitions (known as “bombies” in Laos) released from cluster bombs.

When the bombs fell

Lao PDR is the most heavily bombed country in the world. More than forty years after the end of the 1964-1973 Indochina Conflict, unexploded ordnance (UXOremains a major humanitarian and socio-economic challenge to the country, causing deaths and injuries, limiting access to potentially productive land and adding substantial costs to processes of development.

In excess of 270 million

Estimated number of sub-munitions (bombies) from cluster bombs

Up to 25 percent

of the country’s 10,000
villages blighted by the presence of these remnants of war

22,000 people

have fallen victim to UXO and bombies, almost half of whom died.

300 annually

Over the years, the number of people killed or injured has dropped to about 300 annually from UXO.

UXO Contamination Today

The Lao PDR today is the most cluster munition and UXO affected country in the world. UXO hidden everywhere, UXO can be found in rice fields, school yards, on hillsides, in rivers, along roads and paths and even in the centres of provincial towns.