Laos
Laos is a land-locked South East Asian country, bordering Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Our work here began in 2013. Since then we've cleared the equivalent of 7,505 football pitches of land, and run 7,484 safety training sessions.
Situation in Laos
Laos is the most bombed country in the world, per capita. It suffered heavy aerial attacks during the Vietnam War in the 60s and 70s.
From 1964 to 1973, more than two million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos. The intensity and scale of this bombing was equivalent to a planeload of bombs dropping every eight minutes for nine years.
Today, 70% of the population lives below the poverty line. Most families are dependent on growing rice, but unexploded bombs make this work life-threatening.
Around 20,000 Laotian people, 40% of them children, have been killed or injured by explosives since the Vietnam War ended.
Soy, aged six, was playing with her friends when they found a cluster bomb. Moments later it exploded, killing one of her friends.
"There were planes flying overhead every day during the war. The Vietnamese had many bases and bunkers to hide from the bombs, but the Laos villagers had to hide in the forest and live off wild rice. All the houses were destroyed and many people died during that time. After the war my family moved back to the area, but in the decades after the war many people in the village have been killed by unexploded bombs while farming or foraging."
HALO's work and impact in Laos
HALO staff handling a large bomb in Laos
270 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War. It’s estimated that around a third did not explode and are still in the ground. As a result, roughly 30% of Laos is still contaminated. The Laos government is committed to removing the bombs, but the scale of the problem is immense and represents a huge challenge for HALO.
HALO's work is focused in Savannakhet Province, in the south of the country. The Ho Chi Minh Trail attracted the heaviest bombing in this area during the Vietnam War.
HALO Laos employs 1,150 staff, spread widely across the country.
From 2013 to 2025, HALO Laos destroyed almost 130,000 explosives. We’ve cleared land equivalent to around 50,000 football pitches.
We've also taught over a quarter of a million people how to recognise and report dangerous explosives.
The village and the 750lb bomb
The remote village of Nonsomboun is home to over 1,000 people. In 2019, a 750lb aircraft bomb was unearthed, just 20 metres from the nearest home.
Our team spent 53 days working closely with the local community to plan the safe disposal of this enormous bomb. It took 100 HALO staff, 150 villagers, 4,000 tons of sand and 200,000 sandbags.
Happily, the bomb was securely destroyed, with no injuries or damage to the village.
Learn how we disposed of the bomb
Podcast: Laos 50 years on
JJ Chalmers
Exactly 50 years since the bombing stopped in Laos, HALO is still clearing explosives.
In this podcast episode, JJ Chalmers talks to Sera Koulabdara, CEO of the Legacies of War charity, and William Hunter, HALO Laos’s programme manager.
Other HALO programmes in Asia
HALO's work in Laos is funded by:
