Cambodia has recorded a 33 per cent rise in the number of casualties from landmines and unexploded war remnants from 2018 to last year, local media reports say.
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In 2019, 12 people were killed and 65 injured, including 16 amputation cases, according to a Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority report issued on Tuesday, the Khmer Times reported.
Sixteen of the total casualties were boys, the report said.
Ten people were killed and 48 injured in 2018.
While around 1900 square kilometres of land has been cleared in the South-East Asian nation, another 2000 square kilometres may still contain landmines or unexploded ordnance, the government mine action authority said.
The Vietnamese military laid landmines in Cambodia during the ousting of Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. The practice continued until the regime's demise in 1998.
Since 1979, nearly 20,000 people have died and about 45,000 people were injured from mine and unexploded ordnance explosions, the mine authority report said.
The mine authority has been working with UNICEF to put up landmine awareness billboards, which warn farmers not to use tractors in areas that have not been cleared of mines. The country aims to be landmine-free in the next five years.
The number of casualties from landmine and unexploded ordnance explosions had declined over the years, from 286 in 2010, to 58 in both 2017 and 2018, according to government figures.
Australian Associated Press
