Inside the Laos villages where people build homes, canoes, and tools out of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam War
CISR
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(Insider) Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.
US warplanes dropped more than 270 million bombs on Laos during the Vietnam War, according to the National Regulation Authority (NRA), the governing body for mine action in Laos.
"On average, that's equal to a bombing mission every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years," Sarah Goring, a grants and public information manager at Mines Advisory Group (MAG), told Insider. MAG is a nonprofit organization that clears unexploded ordnance (UXO) from affected lands.
Up to 30% of these bombs failed to detonate on impact, and they remain a deadly threat to local communities. Since 1964, more than 50,000 people have been killed or injured by UXO in Laos, per data from the NRA.