Women trained to clear unexploded bombs in Laos
CISR
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(Church Times) A TEAM of women are being trained to clear unexploded bombs in Laos, the most heavily bombed country in the world, by a Manchester-based charity.
Two million tons of bombs were dropped on the country by the United States during 580,000 bombing missions during the Vietnam War — a plane-load of bombs dropped every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years.
The air strikes sought to disrupt movement along the Ho Chi Minh Trail: an important logistical supply route used by the North Vietnamese. Up to 30 per cent of the bombs did not explode, leaving Laos littered with millions of unexploded and deadly ordnance. More than 50,000 people have been killed by unexploded bombs — 20,000 in the decades since the bombing ended in 1973.
The landmine-clearance-based charity the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) has launched an appeal to fund the training of a team of women to clear the bombs. It has been working to clear areas in Laos for years.