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China-aided landmine clearance project benefits over 2.6 million Cambodians: official
FILE PHOTO This photo taken on February 11, 2025 shows a deminer from the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) examining an unexploded ordnance (UXO) that was unearthed by a worker during irrigation work in Svay Rieng province. - AFP
PHNOM PENH: An ongoing China-aided landmine elimination project has cleared over 160 square kilometres of land contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Cambodia, benefiting more than 2.6 million people, a mine clearance chief said on Saturday (Aug 16).
In a post on his Facebook page, Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), expressed high gratitude to the people and government of China for having provided grant assistance to the CMAC for implementing the China-Aided Cambodia Landmine Elimination Project from 2018 to February 2026.
From 2018 to July 2025, the CMAC released landmine/UXO contamination areas of over 160 square kilometres, and found and destroyed over 95,700 landmines/UXOs, benefitting over 2.6 million inhabitants, he said.
Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). An estimated four to six million landmines and other munitions had been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.
According to Yale University, from October 1965 to August 1973, the United States had dropped over 2.75 million tonnes of ordnance in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.
A Cambodian official report indicated that from 1979 to June 2025, landmine and ERW explosions had claimed 19,843 lives and maimed 45,267 others.
The South-East Asian country is committed to clearing all types of landmines and ERWs by 2030. - Xinhua
