Phnom Penh: The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority or CMAA has revealed that a total of 72,340 mines and explosives were extracted from 2018 to 2020 under National Mine Action Strategy’s Three-Year Implementation Plan. This was declared during the Technical Working Group on Mine Action (TWG-MA) virtual meeting held on Wednesday chaired by CMAA First Vice President Ly Thuch.

It was discussed that the discovery of over 70,000 mines within the three-year implementation is already a big achievement to the group which cleared 421 kilometres in the kingdom. This is 66% of the targeted 641 kilometres. The mines and explosives discovered include 49,256 anti-personnel mines, 956 anti-tank mines, and 221,372 items of explosive remnants of war – all of them were destroyed. It was also revealed that within the seven months of this year alone, Cambodia has recorded 32 casualties due to mines and explosives scattered in some areas in the kingdom.

During the meeting, Thuch stressed the vision, determination, and efforts of the Royal Government of Cambodia to earn peace, political stability and development for this nation and the necessity of demining in peacekeeping. He has also highlighted the accomplishments of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, starting from the liberation of Cambodia and the people from the genocide regime in 1979 to demining for safety and development in Cambodia and active participation in the UN peacekeeping operations in many countries around the world.

The CMAA First Vice President has expressed his gratitude to the development partners and donors including, United States, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, People's Republic of China, Germany, Switzerland, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, Hungary, France, India, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, UNDP and UNICEF for their support to mine action in Cambodia, and called for their ongoing commitment to realize the vision of mine-free Cambodia 2025 as stipulated in the NMAS 2018-2025.