Inside the Painstaking Search for Five Million Decaying Bombs 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.
(ABC News) On a steep and slippery hillside beside a quiet village in Battambang province in north-west Cambodia, a small team is hard at work clearing land mines from conflicts decades ago.
It is an arduous and painstaking task, with de-miners using detectors to manually map every centimetre of the ground and a range of tools to excavate every signal picked up.
It is exhausting work too, with each person wearing body armour, a helmet, and a thick visor as the hot sun beats down through the trees and the humidity swirls thick in the air.
Red signs featuring a skull and cross bones and the words 'Danger! Mines!' are stuck into the earth in areas that are untested no-go zones – some just centimetres from where the work is underway…