VIENTIANE, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Unexploded ordnance (UXO) related accidents killed nine people and injured 39 others in the first ten months of 2024, despite the Lao government's efforts to remove the UXO from farmland and residential areas.
The UXO was cleared from 5,256 hectares of land during the reporting period, amounting to 70 percent of the target figure, and 25 UXO-related accidents occurred, Lao National Radio reported on Wednesday.
The National Regulatory Authority for the UXO/Mine Action Sector (NRA) of Laos aims to clear the UXO from 100,000 hectares of land by 2030 and to survey 250,000 hectares for buried wartime munitions.
Unexploded ordnance contaminates many areas of the country and is an obstacle to development, preventing the use of land for agriculture, industry, tourism, and road construction.
Laos is one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world in terms of per capita. Throughout 1964-1973, over 2 million tons of ordnance were dropped on Laos, of which 30 percent failed to explode.
Over 270 million cluster munitions were dropped from U.S. warplanes, leaving an estimated 80 million live bomblets scattered and buried around the Southeast Asian country. ■
