The Bombing of Laos: By the Numbers

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2 million tons – the amount of ordnance dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973, according to Legacies of War, an advocacy and education group. This amounts to a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours per day, for nine years.

270 million – the number of cluster bombs that were dropped on Laos during this period.

80 million — the estimated number of cluster bombs that did not detonate, most of which are still buried in farmland.

210 million — how many more bombs were dropped on Laos than were dropped on Iraq in 1991, 1998, and 2006 combined. In fact, Laos is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.

20,000 — the number of people who have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance in Laos.

50 — the number of casualties per year, down from 310 per year in 2008. Forty percent of the victims are children.

$4.9 million — the average amount per year the U.S. has spent on clearing unexploded ordnance in Laos, from 1993 to 2016.

$30 million — the amount the U.S. will spend on clearing unexploded ordnance each year for the next three years.

 

Source: ABC News