The NPA Laos Operations Management team, led by Operations Manager Mr. Magnus Johanson and Deputy Country Director Mrs. Linh Nguyen, recently visited NPA Vietnam in Quang Tri Province for a two-day knowledge exchange, 21 and 22 July.

NPA Laos recently welcomed Mr. Olivier Bauduin, UXO Program Advisor from the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane, for a field monitoring visit to U.S. funded operations in Sekong and Attapeu Provinces.

While preparing space for his son’s wedding celebration, Mr. Koi from Hinlath Village in Xanasomboun district, Lao PDR, discovered a buried item he thought could be sold as scrap metal. Instead, it was a live 100Ib incendiary bomb.

On Friday, The National Regulatory Authority (NRA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), convened the National Consultation on Cross-Cutting Issues in the UXO/Mine Action Sector in Lao PDR. The consultation was held alongside two additional preparatory events for the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (3RC-CCM), which Lao PDR will host in September 2026.

In Lao PDR, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) clears land contaminate by cluster munitions, helping communities regain safe access to land for farming and daily life. While this work brings significant benefits, some clearance activities may also have environmental impacts if it is not carefully managed.

Before local farmers could prepare their lands for the upcoming cassava planting season, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) Team removed dangerous threat hidden beneath the soil. During the clearance in March, NPA team discovered a SUU 14 dispenser containing six tubes filled with 102 BLU-3B submunitions in the village. In total, 112 submunitions and three other unexploded ordnances were safely destroyed within this agricultural area of 37,080 square meters.

As Lao PDR serves as the Presidency of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) in 2026 and prepares to host the Third Review Conference 14-18 September, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is proud to support the CCM Presidency through funding from the Government of Canada’s Weapons Threat Reduction Program.

In additional to clearance activities in southern Laos, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) conducts explosive ordnance risk education in communities effected by explosive hazards. Risk education helps villagers live and farm as safely as possible in contaminated areas. It also prevents villagers from engaging with explosive hazards and promotes safer behavior.

In 1996, Mr. Somphone Duangchampa got seriously injured by an unexploded ordnance (UXO) while preparing the area behind his house to build a cattle pen. The accident caused severe injuries to his leg and abdomen.