Conventional Weapons Destruction

Description

The Conventional Weapons Destruction (CWD) account funds State Department humanitarian demining and weapons security programs in over 40 countries. Programs address the impacts of landmines, improvised explosive devices (IED), and other explosive remnants of war (ERW), and combat the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons systems. Landmines, cluster munition remnants, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and other explosive debris of war continue to pose a serious threat and cause harm in post-conflict countries worldwide.

Use of Funds

Funds increase the impact of life-saving demining and weapons security programs and include programs that remove U.S. legacy ordnance, most notably in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia from the Vietnam War era conflicts. CWD also supports programming in Angola, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Funds would also allow the U.S. to follow through on its initial commitment to clearing landmines, UXO, and IEDs inflicted on Ukraine by Russia.

Justification

• CWD programs prevent casualties, promote economic development, allow safe access for other forms of humanitarian aid, enable the return of displaced families, remove hazards to U.S. troops, bolster stability, protect human rights, and ensure the U.S. removes its legacy ordnance.
• Thousands of people are killed and injured by mines or ERW annually, with children accounting for about 40% of casualties and over half of all civilian casualties.
• CWD programs have tangible outputs, end dates and can immediately transform unusable land into thriving communities. In 2021, funding helped release the following land:
  • 75 million m² in Africa.
  • 56 million m² in East Asia and the Pacific.
  • 1 million m² in Europe.
  • 83 million m² in the Middle East and North Africa.
  • 92 million m² in South and Central Asia.
  • 271,440 m² in the Western Hemisphere.
• Due in part to CWD support, 17 countries have been declared mine-free.
• CWD programs keep weapons, such as man-portable air defense systems, out of the wrong hands that could otherwise fuel violence, threatening U.S. national security. In 2021 in Africa alone, CWD programs destroyed 8,999 excess small arms and light weapons and 27.56 metric tons of stockpiled ammunition.