Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

Assignment

Factual

Investigations and journeys into the heart of global events from BBC correspondents.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Assignment: Laos: The most bombed country on earth

Documentaries

News

Laos: the most bombed country on earth

27/04/2023 GMT

Laos: The most bombed country on earth

BBC World Service - Assignment, Laos: The most bombed country on earth

Fifty years since the last US bombs fell on Laos, they’re still killing and maiming

It has been 50 years since the last American bombs dropped on Laos. But they are still killing and maiming, as Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent discovers.

Fifty years after the last US bombs fell on Laos, they are still killing and maiming. In an effort to stop the march of communism, between 1964 and 1973, America dropped over two million tonnes of ordnance on neutral Laos. On average, a planeload of bombs was released every eight minutes, 24 hours a day. This is more than was dropped on Germany and Japan in the entire World War Two. 

Laos, today a country of just six million people, remains the most heavily bombed country in the world per capita. Five decades after the war, these deadly items remain a persistent threat and daily reality for communities across Laos. More than 20,000 people have been killed or injured by UXO (unexploded ordnance, unexploded bombs, and explosive remnants of war) in Laos since the war ended in 1975, with people still killed and injured every year. Around half the victims are children. But UXO does not just kill and maim, it renders agricultural land useless and prevents economic progress. Although Laos is rich in natural resources, its development has been crippled by the legacy of the war. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent travels to Laos to tell its story 50 years on. 

Producer: John Murphy

(Photo: Clearing unexploded bombs in northern Laos. Credit: Bart Verweij/MAG)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Assignment

Laos: The most bombed country on earth

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service