VIENTIANE, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Seek and destroy efforts for decades-old bombs and explosive munitions strewn across landlocked Laos since the Vietnam War era will get a boost of 2,178,865 U.S. dollars in funding from the United States, local media reported Monday.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Vientiane on Friday to launch the project, state-run media Vientiane Times reported.
The funding via the U.S. State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement will see the Mine Action Group and National Regulatory Authority for the UXO/Mine Action Sector in the Lao PDR (NRA) focusing on survey and clearance in three districts of Xieng Khouan province, among the country's most heavily-bombed regions during a nine-year period from 1964.
According to the United Nations and based on U.S. military flight data, U.S bombers released more than two million tonnes of ordnance upon Laos including more than 270 million anti-personnel cluster sub-munitions of which some 80 million failed to detonate upon impact.
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