Nearly 10,000 pieces of unexploded ordnances (UXOs) have been found anddestroyed during a three-month campaign in the northern mountainousprovince of Yen Bai.

The provincial Military Command hasdeployed nearly 100 officers and soldiers to p erform bomb and mineclearance on a 750 m2 site at Dong Cum village, Vinh Kien commune, YenBinh district. M ore than 154 tonnes of UXOs were removed from the siteand destroyed safely.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dinh Tao fromthe Provincial Military Command said that they have undertaken maximumefforts to ensure the efficiency and the absolute safety for both theinvolved staff and local residents during the process.

Preliminary statistics show that UXOs have claimed more than 42,000lives and left about 62,000 injured, mostly rural people and children,in Vietnam over the last four decades.

Each year on average, more than 1,500 people die and nearly 2,300people get injured, including many children, due to UXO-related causes.

The US army used more than 15 milliontonnes of bombs and mines in the war in Vietnam, four times the amountused in World War 2. As a result, Vietnam has been listed among thecountries most contaminated with UXOs.

According to the National Steering Committee for Programme 504, about800,000 tonnes of UXOs are scattering across 6.6 million hectares, or20.12 percent of the country’s land, mainly in the central region,putting people in danger every day.

The Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal under theEngineering Command reported that more than 88 percent of the communesin the country’s 63 provinces are polluted with UXO (7,645 out of8,686).-VNA