(MENAFN- Nam News Network)
PHNOM PENH, Feb 1 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodia has halted mine clearance projects in eight provinces, after the United States has frozen funding, a mine clearance chief said, yesterday.
Heng Ratana, director-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), said, the U.S.-funded mine clearance projects in Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng, Kratie, Tboung Khmum, Kampong Cham, Prey Veng, and Svay Rieng provinces, have been suspended for 85 days.
He said in a statement that these projects, carried out by CMAC in cooperation with development partners, are to clear“the U.S. origin unexploded ordinances as the remnants of war.”
CMAC received a grant of 6.35 million U.S. dollars from the U.S. for mine clearance operations from Mar, 2022 to Nov, 2025, Ratana said, adding that, this funding has supported some 200 technical Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) experts.
He said, under these projects, CMAC had, so far, made remarkable achievements by clearing 561 polygons or 11,195 hectares of cluster munitions or UXOs affected fields, finding and destroying 27,022 landmines and UXOs, that included 17,971 cluster munitions and 69 aerial bombs.
The halt is made, after U.S. President Donald Trump, last week ordered a sweeping 90-day pause on foreign aid, which included suspending its funded mine clearance projects around the world.
Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs). An estimated four million to six million landmines and other munitions had been left over from three decades of war by the U.S., and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.– NNN-AKP
According to the Yale University, from 1965 to 1973, the U.S. had dropped over 2.75 million tons of ordnance in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.
The CMAA's report showed that from 1979 to 2024, landmine and ERW explosions had claimed 19,834 lives and maimed 45,252 others.
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