National Mine Action Strategy - Cambodia

Cambodia’s landmine problem is the result of a protracted sequence of internal and regional conflicts that affected the country from the mid 1960s until the end of 1998. The nature of landmine and ERW contamination in Cambodia is highly complex. The northwestern regions bordering Thailand are heavily affected, while other parts of the country (mainly the East) are considered moderate to low impact, affected mainly by ERW. Mines and ERW have caused an unacceptable number of casualties, both military and civilian and have hindered national development. Mine clearance started along the Cambodia-Vietnam border by the company of women soldiers of the Cambodian People’s Revolutionary Army in 1979 with thousands of hectares of land cleared and thousands of mines/ERWs destroyed to provide safe resettlement and agricultural land despite the lack of substantial financial, technical and modern equipment support. The inception of official humanitarian mine clearance in Cambodia dates back to 1992