Over 600 participants from 105 countries have convened in Siem Reap for a summit focused on the global campaign to clear landmines. With over 5,000 victims annually and 33 nations still facing landmine hazards, the summit calls for increased international cooperation and resources to protect future generations from the explosive remnants of war.
On Wednesday, Ly Thuch, First Vice-President of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Authority and President of the Ottawa Convention 2024, led a delegation of over 600 members on a visit to Angkor Wat during their participation in the Siem Reap-Angkor Summit on a Mine-Free World meeting of State Parties to the Ottawa Convention. Cambodia was approved as chair and host to the fifth review meeting of the Ottawa Convention’s by its 164 members in November of last year.
Read more…
Source: Khmer Times
Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter
Related:
- South Sudan: UNMAS Clears Anti-personnel Mines in Remote Canal, though Community Challenges Remain
August 17, 2022
MALAKAL – As powerful barges manned by the Bangladeshi Marine Force Unit deployed to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) make their careful way across the overflowing waters of the White Nile, the air is laced with expectation. Lush, thick vegetation characteristic of the Sudd—one of the world’s largest wetlands—flank both sides of the ...
- Cambodia: UXO clearance needs more funds, equipment, expertise
August 12, 2022
Underwater operations to clear unexploded ordnance (UXO) from a warship sunk in on a warship in Prey Veng province’s Koh Chek are being stifled through a lack of professional manpower, modern equipment, and funds. Senior Minister Ly Thuch, who is the first vice-president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), said yesterday that ...
- US approves $89 million to help Ukraine clear land mines
August 9, 2022
The United States approved $89 million in land mine removal assistance for Ukraine, another financial commitment from Washington nearly half a year after Russia began its invasion of its neighboring country. The State Department announced the allocation of the significant sum for humanitarian demining operations on Tuesday. A government spokesman told Politico that the funds won’t ...
- Cambodia: More provinces to be declared mine-free by year’s end
August 2, 2022
Five provinces – Takeo, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampot and Svay Rieng – will be declared mine-free as part of the Samdech Techo Project for Mine Action, said the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) on August 2. “We will begin demining 30.91sq km of thee provinces in August, at a cost of $3.8 ...
- Cambodia: King and Queen Mother donate $1.5 million for landmine clearance
July 25, 2022
His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, and Her Majesty Queen-Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk have just made a donation of $1.5 million to the government to be allocated for demining operations to reach the goal of mine-free Cambodia by 2025. In a royal statement released this morning, the Queen Mother gifted $1 million to the righteous ...
- Mine detection dog “Rico” visits Capitol Hill, to highlight the challenges millions face due to landmines in Cambodia and elsewhere
July 15, 2022
Mine Detection Dog Rico was the star guest at an event hosted by Keo Chhea, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the U.S., on Capitol Hill to highlight the ongoing problems of landmines in Cambodia and the international efforts that are going into removing them. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the United States ...
- Armenia signs memorandum with Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency
July 12, 2022
The Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise (Center) of Armenia hosted a delegation from the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA), the Center informs Armenian News-NEWS.am. The IKMAA representatives, led by the deputy director Niyazi Khalid, visited the Center’s training center, got acquainted with the Center’s activities, and exchanged experience. Also, a memorandum of understanding was signed ...
- Treatments for parasites keeping landmine detection dogs in field
July 11, 2022
Cambodia is a country that remains plagued by landmine contamination. As a result, the country has a high proportion of physically disabled people in its population, which has a huge impact both socioeconomically and psychologically. Thankfully, specially trained mine detection dogs, that have been used since the early 2000s, do an amazing job of sniffing out ...
- Cambodia: More than 2,000 square kilometres of land demined in more than three decades
July 11, 2022
For more than 30 years, the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) has carried out its demining and UXO clearance mission and have completed this mission in more than 2,000 square kilometres of land. This statement was made by Senior Minister Ly Thuch, CMAA First Vice President, during a press conference held at the ...
- Lack of funds hampers de-mining efforts in Afghanistan
July 7, 2022
At a Red Cross hospital in Kabul, a woman helps her young child put on his prosthetic leg. He’s just one of thousands of land-mine victims in Afghanistan. After four decades of war, the country is one of the most heavily mined places on Earth. About 300 children were killed or maimed by unexploded devices in the seven ...
- Yemen: YEMAC Calls on UN to Provide Detectors for Mines to Secure Lives of Civilians
July 2, 2022
The Sana’a-based Yemen Executive Mine Actions Center (YEMAC) called on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to make efforts to urgently provide detectors to clear areas contaminated with mines, cluster bombs and remnants of war. In a statement issued Saturday, the center urged the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to continue supporting the center’s activities to ...
- Cambodia: 500 UXOs found in Banteay Meanchey in the first six months of this year
June 29, 2022
In the first six months of this year, demining specialists in Banteay Meanchey province found about 500 units of unexploded ordnance (UXO). In the past five years, explosive remnants of war have killed six people and injured 13 others, officials said. Speaking at a June 29 ceremony to raise awareness about the dangers caused by UXOs, ...
- Somalia: ATMIS, UNMAS and key stakeholders conclude conference to counter IEDs
June 18, 2022
Top officials of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), and key stakeholders, have concluded a three-day conference to take stock of the current measures to counter Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), in order to develop a comprehensive IED threat mitigation strategy. The conference in Mogadishu, attended by Somali ...
- Lebanon’s Minefields | Clearing the hidden remnants of war | UN Story
June 15, 2022
Zeina Saleh is a young Lebanese woman working in mine clearance and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) in southern Lebanon. Women working in the field of demining are rare. Zeina Saleh is amongst those very few women working under extremely risky conditions to realize her vision of a mine-free Lebanon. Zeina’s works to allow the safe passage ...
- Landmines still a threat to more than a million Cambodians
June 15, 2022
More than one million people still live in fear and work in areas contaminated by landmines, ERW and other UXOs while financial support is needed so that the country can reach its mine-free goal by 2025, a senior official said. Ly Thuch, first vice-president of Cambodian Mine Action and Victims Assistance Authority, said yesterday that despite ...
- Cambodia: Former President of Colombia visits CMAC’s headquarters
June 8, 2022
Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of the Republic of Colombia and current President of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI), paid a visit to the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC)’s headquarters in Phnom Penh earlier this week. He was warmly received by Heng Ratana, Director General of CMAC and many other senior CMAC officials. The former Colombian president ...
- Vietnam: Quang Binh works hard on bomb and mine clearance
May 31, 2022
A workshop on building a database for coordination in overcoming post-war bombs, mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the central province of Quang Binh was organised in the locality on May 30. As part of a project on establishing and assisting database units, and coordinating the settlement of UXO consequences in Quang Binh, the event was ...
- Cambodia: CMAC inks agreement for $12 million demining project in Battambang
May 24, 2022
The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) signed an agreement with Crown Agents for the implementation of the mine clearance project of the Mine Action Integration and Disability Relief Project Phase II. The project is financed under a grant of the Japanese Government with the amount of $12,263,465 from April of this year until December 31,2025. The signing ...
- Azerbaijan getting rid of unusable ammo as mine clearance op goes ahead in Karabakh
May 23, 2022
Units of the Azerbaijan Army are continuing disposal of expired and unusable ammunition in a planned manner in compliance with safety measures, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. According to the ministry, the process will be carried out from May 23 to May 28, 2022, at the Seyfali training range. The public will be periodically informed ...
- Handbook for Capacity Development in Mine Action
May 23, 2022
The mine action sector has evolved dramatically since the late 1980s when humanitarian clearance efforts began inAfghanistan and a nascent advocacy movement to ban these indiscriminate weapons started to start to take root. Since then, the world has seen significant changes to international law, technological advances, and the emergence of an entirely new professional sector ...
- In Afghanistan, Landmines Are Making Peace Deadly
May 10, 2022
On the morning of April 1, seven children were playing in the lush wheat fields of Afghanistan’s Marjah district, in the southern Helmand province, by tossing around a metal object. Moments later, it exploded. The blast claimed five of their lives, including the youngest in the group, a 5-year-old boy. “My daughter has not only lost ...
- We should not forget the dangers hiding under Afghan soil
April 24, 2022
Today, due to displacement, economic collapse, and a disintegration of social services including health and education, most Afghans are living in increasingly precarious conditions. Up to 23 million Afghans are facing acute hunger – more than half of the country’s population. As the world is rightfully looking at Ukraine, we must not forget Afghanistan. The current ...