Land
Landmines, UXO and demining
Cambodia leads pack for landmine clearance efforts
Cambodia has cleared more square kilometres of landmines than any other country over the past year, according to a new report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, but is still unlikely to meet its goals in coming years. At 46.5 square kilometres, Cambodia’s demining ...
UXO caches uncovered in both Kandal, Pailin
Caches of unexploded ordnance were recovered in both Pailin and Kandal provinces on November 5 in what was a busy weekend for the Cambodian Mine Action Centre. Twelve DK-82 mortar rounds and two B-41 rocket-propelled grenades were unearthed by canal workers digging behind the Pailin ...
Four people killed in UXO accidents over two days
The presence of unexploded ordnance continues to have a major impact on the lives of rural people, including their ability to grow crops, with Bualapha district in Khammuan province being one such area. District Governor Mr Khamphao Thongthephahack said Bualapha district was more heavily contaminated ...
Funding needed to improve lives of disabled people
The Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise Centre in Vientiane is continuing its work to raise money to improve conditions for disabled people in Laos, with over 1,000 people in need of the centre’s help. COPE Chief Executive Officer Ms Bounlanh Phayboun told Vientiane Times on September ...
New Zealand announces UXO clearance package
New Zealand will provide US$7.2 million, one of the biggest single contributions made through the United Nations Development Programme, to Laos’ UXO sector. The funding will include trialling innovative New Zealand technology which destroys unexploded ordnance by melting casings without having to dig up or ...
Ratana decries lack of UXO aid
A top Cambodian demining official slammed US President Barack Obama’s widely heralded pledge to increase demining aid to Laos on September 6, faulting the US for what he characterised as its “marginal assistance” to Cambodia’s demining efforts. In a speech at the 2016 ASEAN Summit in ...
Laos launches SDG 18 to make lives safe from UXO
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon September 8 inaugurated the Lao PDR’s own national Sustainable Development Goal on unexploded ordnance during the ongoing ASEAN Summits. The SDGs have been drawn up by the United Nations as targets for developing countries. Goal No. 18, which ...
US pledges US$90 million for UXO clearance
The United States announced on September 6th it would provide an additional US$90 million over the next three years to help Laos clear unexploded ordnance which has continued to kill and injure people since bombs rained down on the country during the Indochina War. The extra assistance ...
Poverty solutions prove challenging
Rural development and poverty eradication in Laos could face many challenges in the coming years before getting better in the long term, according to the National Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication. The challenges include unexpected developments and the fact that regional and international integration ...
Follow the money
A surge in U.S. aid is helping Cambodia scale up work to rid its eastern provinces of the deadly detritus of old wars. With other countries pulling funding, deminers are leaving the west—where death and injury from old landmines and artillery shells are far more ...
