Landmine Causalities Drop 37 Percent

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) – Cambodia recorded 85 landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) casualties in the first nine months of this year, a 37-percent decrease compared with 135 casualties over the same period last year, according to a report yesterday.

During the January-September period this year, 15 people were killed, down from 17 deaths over the same period last year, said the report from the Cambodian Mine Action Authority, adding that 70 others were either injured or had limbs amputated, down from 118.

“Some 64 percent of the victims were men, 26 percent were boys, and the rest were women and girls,” it said.

An estimated 4-6 million landmines and other munitions left from decades of war and internal conflict continue to contaminate Cambodia. According to the report, landmine and UXO explosions had killed 19,720 people from 1979 to September 2015.

Early this year, a Belgian non-profit organization Apopo, in cooperation with the Cambodian Mine Action Center, imported 15 African giant pouched rats into Cambodia to help detect landmines and UXOs buried throughout the country.

source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/