Cambodia was the first country for Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to support on mine action. NPA started up demining activities in 1992 in preparation for the resettlement of refugees returning from the border camps in Thailand, but also to make land safe for communities affected by landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive ordnance.
This year marking 30 years anniversary of NPA presence in Cambodia, we celebrated our achievement by supported the initiative of declare Kep province (located at Southern part) as a first mine free province in Cambodia.
In 2014, Cambodia was one of only 3 countries deemed to have massive levels of contamination (less than 1,000 sqkm), the other two being Iraq and Afghanistan. Although Cambodia has made great progress over the last 30 years through survey, clearance, EORE and victim assistance activities, much work remains to be done. As of 2022, Cambodia estimated that it still has a total of 794,017,952 square meters of land contaminated with anti-personnel mines to be released, NPA Cambodia’s work support the initiative to help Cambodia make progress towards declaring the country mine-free where landmines, cluster munitions and other ERW no longer pose a risk to people and are no longer an obstacle to development.
In 2021, Kep was identified as one of the low threat contaminated areas in Cambodia with only 8 minefields recorded in the national database. NPA Cambodia has had a consistent presence in country since this date, working with both the national mine action authority – CMAA and the national mine action operator- CMAC. NPA initiated a field visit to the remaining minefields in Kep to learn about the mine-contaminated areas along with CMAC and CMAA. After the fruitful visit, NPA mobilised financial resource from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA) and partnered CMAC to conducted the survey and clearance operation between December 2021 to mid-February 2022 with the vision to declared Kep as a first mine-free of Cambodia in 2022.
On 28th February 2022, Kep province declared as a first mine free in Cambodia, this achievement under NPA support provided a momentum to the overall goal of a mine-free Cambodia. The Kep Mine-free Province marked a significant milestone in the efforts of Royal Government of Cambodia in working to achieve mine-free status nationally and provide momentum to these efforts domestically as well as under the framework of the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC). Cambodia hosted the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2022 under theme of " A community of peace and shared future " that promote safe tourism destinations in the country. Kep announced as mine-free help reinvigorate tourism to the area following the last two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic. With Kep’s geographical and tourism potential, a mine-free Kep bring peace of mind to potential visitors, investors to the province and also contribute to the sustainable development goal (SDG) as well.
On the other hand, NPA’s Mine Action and Disarmament Programme in Cambodia also implemented our own operations in the eastern cluster munitions affected province Ratanakiri since 2013 with the aim of the project was to introduce the new survey methodology that had proven results in neighboring countries in an effort to help Cambodia respond to the cluster munition contamination. In the project, NPA employed all women survey teams to conduct the CMRS, the women multi-task teams have been trained in every technical skill required for the role, including driving, English language, medical first aid, Non-Technical Survey, Technical Survey, Explosive Ordnance Disposal and more. To date, since its commencement in 2013, this project has made distinct progress with 71,744,255 m2 land identified as Suspected hazardous area through the baseline survey (BLS), 25,786,784m2 identified as CHA and 5,169,823m2 released back to the community through clearance.
NPA Cambodia remains committed to continue working with The Royal Government of Cambodia for their continuous efforts on mine action towards a mine free Cambodia and address the explosive remnant that exposed to risk of development in country. NPA proud to celebrate on this milestone marking our 30 years of mine action work in Cambodia, the first mine free province and the beginning of the challenging phase of finalizing on of the third most contaminated countries in the world.