AN ongoing China-aided landmine elimination project has cleared over 150sq km of land contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs) in Cambodia, benefiting about 2.5 million people, a mine clearance chief said.
“From 2018 to late 2024, this project has made remarkable achievements by releasing landmines/unexploded ordnance (UXO) contaminated areas of 15,060ha, finding and destroying 82,844 landmines and UXOs,” Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC)’s director general Heng Ratana said in a statement posted on social media yesterday.
There are approximately 2.5 million direct and indirect beneficiaries from this project, he added.
Ratana said China’s grant aid under the China-Aided Cambodia Landmines Elimination Project has been supporting CMAC’s landmine and ERW clearance operations in many Cambodian provinces.
Ly Thuch, a senior minister and first vice-president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, said the government and people of Cambodia highly valued the generosity extended by China, particularly for the mine clearance sector.
“Over the years, China has provided financial support for our deminers to clear silent killers, the landmines,” Thuch said.
“One landmine can destroy a whole family, so the support from China has saved our lives in Cambodia.”
He said the mine-cleared land has become permanently safe for farmers, children and households to build houses, schools, playgrounds and temples, among others.
Regional and internal conflicts from the 1960s to late 1998 had left Cambodia as one of the most mine and ERW-affected countries in the world.
An estimated four to six million landmines and other munitions were left over from the almost three decades of war. — Xinhua
