Washington, DC - The United States is the world’s single largest financial supporter of efforts to address humanitarian hazards from landmines and unexploded ordnance in post-conflict countries and to reduce the availability of excess, loosely-secured, or otherwise at-risk weapons and ordnance. Today’s release of To Walk the Earth in Safety, the Department of State’s report summarizing the accomplishments of the U.S. Conventional Weapons Destruction Program, highlights our enduring commitment to making post-conflict communities safer and setting the stage for their recovery and development.

• Since 1993, the United States has invested more than $2.5 billion for the safe disposal of small arms, light weapons, and munitions, as well as for removal of landmines and explosive remnants of war in more than 90 countries, making the United States the world’s single largest financial supporter of conventional weapons destruction.
• Just 15 years ago, landmines and other explosive remnants of war killed or injured nearly 10,000 men, women, and children every year – more than 25 every day. Thanks to the concerted efforts of the United States, partner nations, international nongovernmental organizations, and host nations, that figure has now dropped by more than 60 percent.
• Working in close cooperation with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Leahy War Victims Fund, the Department of State has helped 16 countries to declare themselves mine-impact free, most recently Mozambique in September 2015. Our efforts have helped to destroy more than 1.6 million small arms and light weapons and more than 90,000 tons of munitions in 38 countries since 2001.
• Through the Conventional Weapons Destruction program, the U.S. government has also collaborated with partner nations and international organizations since 2003 to destroy more than 34,000 excess or poorly-secured man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), shoulder-fired missiles that pose a serious potential threat to global aviation in the hands of terrorists or insurgents.
• Proactive community outreach through our Mine Risk Education programs have prevented countless injuries while U.S.-funded Survivor Assistance has provided essential medical and rehabilitation services to more than 250,000 people injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance.