PHNOM PENH, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- An ongoing China-aided landmine elimination project has cleared over 160 square kilometers of land contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Cambodia, benefiting more than 2.6 million people, a mine clearance chief said on Saturday.

In a post on his Facebook page, Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), expressed high gratitude to the people and government of China for having provided grant assistance to the CMAC for implementing the China-Aided Cambodia Landmine Elimination Project from 2018 to February 2026.

From 2018 to July 2025, the CMAC released landmine/UXO contamination areas of over 160 square kilometers, and found and destroyed over 95,700 landmines/UXOs, benefiting over 2.6 million inhabitants, he said.

Cambodia is one of the countries worst affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions had been left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.

According to Yale University, from October 1965 to August 1973, the United States had dropped over 2.75 million tons of ordnance in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites in Cambodia.

A Cambodian official report indicated that from 1979 to June 2025, landmine and ERW explosions had claimed 19,843 lives and maimed 45,267 others.

The Southeast Asian country is committed to clearing all types of landmines and ERWs by 2030. ■