Meet The Former Child Soldier Who Dug Up Fifty-Thousand Landmines In Cambodia
CISR
This headline is brought to you by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR) which works to support resilience and recovery in global communities affected by war and conflict.
(SOFREP) The dangers of war do not end once it is over. Bombs and mines were still left hiding on the ground of once was a warzone. In Cambodia, the Cambodian–Vietnamese War and the dictatorship of Pol Pot in the 1980s and 1990s both resulted in milllions of landmines still scattered and unseen in Cambodia, waiting for their victims. That was why Aki Ra, a former child soldier, took it upon himself and devoted his life to digging up and removing Cambodia’s landmines.
According to World Nomads, 5 million mines still remain in the country, and around 15 Cambodians fall victim to these mines each month. On the other hand, the Halo Trust reported that “Over 64,000 casualties and more than 25,000 amputees have been recorded since 1979.”