Spy Satellite Images Unearth Cambodia’s Buried Land Mines

Image credit: HALO/Google Maps

Declassified US spy satellite photos from the Cold War era are helping humanitarian groups in Cambodia locate deadly land mines buried during decades of brutal conflict.

The Cambodian countryside still hides the scars of a long civil war that left the land riddled with explosives. Now, with help from 1970s-era satellite imagery once deemed top secret, de-mining experts are uncovering forgotten danger zones that threaten farmers and villagers to this day.

“There were over 50 mine-related accidents last year,” said Tobias Hewitt, Cambodia country director for the HALO Trust, the world’s largest mine clearance NGO. “The number is slowly declining, but the risk remains immense.”

Roughly 10 million anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines were laid during Cambodia’s conflict, which spanned from the late 1960s through to the 1990s. Since then, over 20,000 Cambodians have died, and another 45,000 have been injured in mine-related incidents. Many of these explosives lie in rural areas, concealed by time, vegetation, and shifting populations.

To combat this invisible threat, HALO Trust teams have begun using imagery from the US military’s HEXAGON spy satellite programme. These detailed black-and-white photographs—taken on film and dropped back to Earth in capsules—were declassified in 2011. By overlaying them with modern maps, analysts can identify long-lost roads and military routes, prime locations where mines were often planted.

“It’s a game-changer,” said Hewitt. “People plough land not knowing it was once a road. The satellite photos show us exactly where to look.”

As farming becomes increasingly mechanised in Cambodia, the risk of triggering larger anti-vehicle mines—once safely dormant—is growing. Tractors and heavy equipment can now set off explosives that were buried and forgotten for decades.

While the old images are proving invaluable, the clearance process remains painstaking. Every suspected area must be surveyed on foot, often inch by inch. But with this new lens on the past, Cambodia’s decades-long battle against land mines is gaining fresh momentum.

More than 1,200 square miles have been cleared so far. With luck—and the help of these unexpected Cold War relics—the country hopes to be mine-free by 2030.

-2025-04-30