A storage space for unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Vietnam's Ha Tay Village. Photos: dpa
Hoang Thi Ly smiles from the concrete porch of her ochre-coloured home in Quang Tri province, looking over the calm fields and rice paddies of central Vietnam.
She points in the direction of the grasslands of Truc Lam village, a sight so calm and bucolic that one can scarcely imagine what once occurred here.
“When I was a child, I grew up in a minefield,” she said. “There was a US army base here, so there were bombs everywhere.”
Hoang Thi Ly, who grew up in a minefield, in front of her home in Truc Lam Village. She has worked for MAG since 2001.
Hoang, now 53, was just five years old when the Vietnam War ended. It has now been more than 50 years since the last US soldier left the southeast Asian country – in March 1973 – yet tens of thousands of explosives from the conflict are still being found here each year, mere inches beneath the soil.
The United States carried out more than 1 million bombing raids during the 20-year war, dropping 5 million tons of ordnance on Vietnam, especially cluster munitions that scattered across the land – around a third of which did not explode on impact.
Cluster munitions are missiles and bombs that burst in the air over the target, scattering or releasing many small explosive devices known as submunitions.
Most European Union and Nato countries have signed a treaty, known as the Oslo Convention, to ban cluster munitions. The US is not a signatory to the treaty. Washington recently made the controversial decision to supply Ukraine with the munitions as part of its effort to defend itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Over a decade after the Vietnam war ended, Ly became a farmer, yet she remained terrified of striking an unexploded bomb when cultivating the land. Many people and cattle in the area died after walking on mines or unexploded ordnance (UXO).
In Quang Tri, which was the location of the demilitarised zone between North and South Vietnam and remains the most heavily contaminated province in the country, there have been 3,500 deaths from post-war accidents. The last death was in 2022 when a farmer picked up a bomb in a field and it exploded in his hands.
In 2001, Hoang decided to change career after she was approached by the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British-based NGO that has been working in Vietnam since 1999 and now employs 735 people in the country.
Hoang joined the organisation as a de-miner, and her village, which was heavily contaminated with landmines to protect the US Army base, became the first site in the province successfully cleared by the organisation.
“When I joined MAG, I had a better income,” she said. “My standard of living improved and my kids could go to school.
“I was scared when I first started the work, but I was properly trained and I feel confident now,” she added. “Even my family is OK with me doing the work.”
MAG staff use a loop detector to search for unexploded ordnance in Vietnam’s Trieu Phong District.
Every day, MAG staff scour the landscape with metal detectors, searching for UXO to clear so the land can be made safe again and ready for agriculture or development. In 2022, MAG demolished 14,615 bombs, clearing just over 10sq km of land.
All provinces in Vietnam were contaminated with UXO and, nationwide, there have been more than 100,000 deaths and injuries in the country in the past 50 years, according to Sarah Goring, MAG’s Vietnam Country Director.
Their team is often called out to investigate after locals report possible sightings of UXO by calling a government-run hotline.
Pham Van Dong, 49, mentioned a missile he found in his garden in rural Quang Tri province, which MAG staff came to inspect: “I found this on my land. I got soil delivered from somewhere else and when we worked with it, we found the UXO. I reported it the next day.
“I have found many UXOs,” Pham adds. “Now there are procedures and we know how to report them, but before we did not.”
After finding unexploded bombs, MAG staff either destroy them on site, or take them away to a demolition site to be safely destroyed.
Raising awareness of the hotline locals can call to report sightings of UXO is a crucial part of MAG’s work. The organisation runs ads on social media inviting villagers to join education sessions in which participants literally chant the hotline number together.
Although these deadly relics of the Vietnam War are still claiming lives, the Vietnamese people are finding ways to heal.
Thai Van Ninh, another member of MAG staff, said he lost his 12-year-old brother to an unexploded bomb when he was just six years old: “He was on his way home from school. He picked up an explosive unknowingly, and it exploded when he threw it.
“Losing a close family member is very painful. For that reason, I have always been aware of the danger of explosives,” he said. “This motivated me to join MAG. Working here helps me heal while also helping others.” – dpa/Chris Humphrey and Carol Frentzen
