SIEM REAP — On a quiet cashew farm in Cambodia’s remote northeast, a deadly threat lay buried just beneath the surface—until villagers raised the alarm. What they found were unexploded cluster munitions, relics of war dropped from the sky decades ago, now unstable and potentially lethal.

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) responded swiftly, deploying its 5th Mine Action Unit to Ou Chum District in Ratanakiri province on May 12. The team uncovered and destroyed a cache of U.S.-made cluster bombs—specifically CBU-25/A munitions containing 132 smaller BLU-24/B submunitions, around 120 of which were still intact and encased in launch tubes.

“These cluster bombs were so hazardous that they couldn’t be safely moved. We had to destroy them on the spot,” said CMAC Director General Heng Ratana. The buried munitions were found about one meter underground in a pit near the plantation.

Despite the risk and the impact on their crops, local farmers didn’t hesitate to assist. “The cashew farm owners gave us a full cooperation although the on-site bomb destruction affected some of their plantations,” Ratana said. “They will be safe and free from danger from now on.”

Cambodia remains one of the most heavily bombed and mined countries in the world. Between the 1960s and 1970s, more than 10,000 air raids dropped over 30 million cluster munitions across the country. The legacy of war has left a deadly imprint on everyday life, particularly in rural communities where farmland and forests remain contaminated.

Since 1992, CMAC has cleared more than 3,024 square kilometers of land, locating and destroying over 4 million mines and explosive remnants of war. These efforts have directly benefited around 12 million Cambodians by returning land to safe use.

Yet the human toll is immense. From 1979 to 2023, landmines and unexploded ordnance killed 19,822 people and injured 45,215, according to the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). Encouragingly, CMAA’s 2024 report notes a dramatic drop in annual casualties—from over 4,300 in 1996 to fewer than 100 in recent years.

In 2024 alone, CMAC cleared 1,256 minefields and unexploded ordnance (UXO) zones, covering nearly 200 square kilometers and eliminating 99,874 explosive items. Since the early 1990s, Cambodia’s demining teams have destroyed more than 1.1 million anti-personnel mines, over 26,000 anti-tank mines, and more than 3.1 million other types of explosive devices.

Beyond clearing bombs, CMAC provides mine risk education and victim assistance, and works with the Ministry of Interior on a renewed five-year agreement to train dogs for detecting both explosives and narcotics—an effort that has already helped locate tens of thousands of dangerous remnants.

Even as the U.S. freezes demining funding and Cambodia extends its mine-free goal to 2030, the country continues pressing forward—relying on support from a broad coalition of international donors and its own people.

Funding for demining has come from countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, as well as the United Nations, NGOs, private donors, and a national campaign backed by everyday Cambodians.

With each cluster bomb cleared and each minefield made safe, Cambodia inches closer to a future free from the long shadow of war.