Phnom Penh, Jan 31 (IANS) Cambodia has halted mine clearance projects in eight provinces after the United States has frozen funding, a mine clearance chief said on Friday.
Heng Ratana, Director-General of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), said the US-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 from January 25 onwards.
He said in a statement posted on social media that these projects, carried out by CMAC in cooperation with development partners, are to clear “the US origin unexploded ordinances as the remnants of war.”
CMAC has received a grant of 6.35 million US dollars from the US for mine clearance operations from March 2022 to November 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, Xinhua news agency reported.
The halt was made after US 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 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 the Yale University, from 1965 to 1973, the US 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.
–IANS
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