Lao PDR
Casualties
Casualties Overview
|
All known casualties by end 2016 |
At least 50,713 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (29,550 killed; 21,163 injured) |
|
Casualties occurring in 2016 |
59 (2015: 42) |
|
2016 casualties by survival outcome |
10 killed; 49 injured (2015: 9 killed; 33 injured) |
|
2016 casualties by device type |
51 unexploded submunitions; 8 ERW |
The National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for Unexploded Ordnance/Mine Action Sector in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) reported 59 casualties from unexploded submunitions and ERW for 2016. Ten people were killed and 49 were injured. The vast majority of casualties, 51, were caused by unexploded submunitions and eight by other ERW.[1]
The majority of the casualties were male (51). Of the total, 37 were children, including five girls, and 22 were adults, including three women.[2] The 34 incidents occurred in 10 provinces: Attapue, Champasak, Hauphan, Xiengkhaung, Laungprabang, Phongsaly, Vientiane province, Savannakhet, and Sekong province.[3]
The casualty total for 2016 was the highest total since 2011, when 99 casualties were reported.[4]
By the end of 2016, the Monitor had identified at least 50,713 casualties, of which 29,550 were killed and 21,163 were injured.[5] The first phase of a nationwide casualty survey recording retrospective data was completed in 2008, which identified 50,136 mine/ERW casualties between 1964 and 2008. Of these, ERW caused the most casualties, followed by landmines, and then unexploded submunitions.[6] Between 2009 and 2016, a further 577 casualties were reported.[7]
Mine/ERW incidents continued to be reported in 2017.
Cluster munition casualties
Unexploded submunitions were reported to have caused 7,729 casualties in the period 1964–2016.[8] In 2016, unexploded submunition incidents were reported to have resulted in 51 casualties.[9]
[1] Email from Bountao Chanthavongsa, UXO Victim Assistance Officer, NRA, 11 May 2017.
[2] Ibid., 28 March 2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Analysis of data conducted by the Monitor.
[5] This total is based on the NRA National Survey of UXO Victims and Accidents Phase 1, which collected data on casualties between 1964 and 2008, and Monitor analysis of data from 2009 to 2016. However, the 2008 data is not complete, as information for that year depended on the data of the visit to the surveyed community and no data was collected after October 2008. See NRA, “National Survey of UXO Victims and Accidents Phase 1,” Vientiane, undated but 2009, pp. ix–x.
[6] NRA, “National Survey of UXO Victims and Accidents Phase 1,” Vientiane, undated but 2009, pp. ix–x.
[7] Analysis of available data by the Monitor.
[8] Emails from Michael Boddington, NRA, 18 and 26 August 2010; CMC, “CMC Media Coverage Report: First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, Lao PDR 9–12 November 2010”; NRA casualty data provided by Bountao Chanthavongsa, NRA, 29 March 2013; emails from Bountao Chanthavongsa, NRA, 3 August 2015, and 11 May 2017.
[9] Emails from Bountao Chanthavongsa, NRA, 11 May 2017, and 3 August 2016.