Lao PDR
Casualties
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Casualties |
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All known casualties (between 1964 and 2017) |
50,754 mine/unexploded remnants of war (ERW) casualties: 29,554 killed and 21,200 injured |
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Casualties in 2017 [1] |
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Annual total |
41 |
31% decrease from 59 in 2016 |
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Survival outcome |
4 killed; 37 injured
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Device type causing casualties |
9 ERW; 32 unexploded submunition |
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Civilian status |
41 civilian |
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Age and gender |
23 adults: 9 women; 14 men |
18 children: 9 boys; 9 girls |
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Casualties in 2017—details
The majority of casualties in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) in 2017, 78%, were caused by unexploded submunitions.This continued a change from 2016 when unexploded submunitions were recorded as the vast majority of casualties at 86% of the annual total, whereas submunition casualties represented less than half the total recorded casualties compared to ERW casualties in 2014 (47%) and 2015 (43%). Children made up 44% of all annual casualties recorded for 2017. The 19 incidents causing 41 casualties in 2017 occurred in eight provinces: Attapue, Bokeo, Champasak, Saravane, Savannakhet, Saysomboun, Sekong, and Xiengkhaung. Xiengkhaung recorded the most annual casualties in a province, with eight.
By the end of 2017, the Monitor had identified at least 50,754 casualties, of which 29,554 were killed and 21,200 were injured.[2] 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.[3] Between 2009 and 2017, a further 618 casualties were reported.[4]
Cluster munition casualties
The total of 32 unexploded submunition casualties reported for 2017 was a decrease on the 51 reported for 2016. Of the 2017 total, 16 casualties were children and the other half were adults.[5] Unexploded submunitions were reported to have caused 7,761 casualties in the period 1964–2017.[6]
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on: email from Bountao Chanthavongsa, UXO Victim Assistance Officer, National Regulatory Authority for the UXO/Mine Action Sector (NRA), 21 February 2018.
[2] 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 2017. However, the 2008 data is not complete, as information for that year depended on the date 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.
[3] NRA, “National Survey of UXO Victims and Accidents Phase 1,” Vientiane, undated but 2009, pp. ix–x.
[4] Analysis of available data by the Monitor.
[5] Emails from Bountao Chanthavongsa, NRA, 11 May 2017, and 21 February 2018.
[6] 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, 11 May 2017, and 21 February 2018.