Landmine/UXO casualties in Cambodia down 21 pct in 1st four months

PHNOM PENH, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has seen 26 landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) casualties in the first four months of 2017, down 21 percent compared with the same period last year, the latest report showed on Monday.

During the January-April period this year, five people were killed, down from 13 deaths over the same period last year, said the report of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA).

It added that 21 others were either injured or had limbs amputated during the first four months of this year, slightly up from 20 over the same period last year.

"Seventy-three percent of the victims were men, 19 percent were boys, and the rest were women," the report said.

Cambodia is one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world. An estimated 4 to 6 million landmines and other munitions were left over from nearly three decades of war that ended in 1998.

According to the report, landmine and UXO explosions had killed 19,753 people and injured or amputated 44,935 others from 1979 to April 2017.

CMAA's first vice president Serei Kosal said earlier this year that Cambodia had cleared landmines and explosive remnants of war on an area of about 1,400 square kilometers of the total 3,350-square-kilometer contaminated land.

He said the Southeast Asian country is seeking approximately 400 million U.S. dollars to clear all types of mines and explosive remnants of war by 2025.

source http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-06/19/c_136377429.htm