Landmine casualties in Cambodia down 36 pct in 5 months of 2015

Cambodia has seen 57 landmine casualties in the first five months of 2015, down 36 percent compared with 89 casualties over the same period of last year, the latest report said Saturday.

During the January to May period this year, eight people were killed, down from 14 deaths over the same period last year, according to the report from the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority.

It showed that 49 others were either injured or amputated, down from 75.

"About 90 percent of the victims were male," it said.

From 1979 to May 2015, landmines and unexploded ordnance had killed 19,713 people and either injured or amputated 44,812 others, it said.

Cambodia is one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world. An estimated 4 to 6 million landmines and other munitions left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.

The Southeast Asian nation targets to entirely get rid of all types of anti-personnel mines by 2020.

In April, a Belgian non-governmental organization Apopo, in cooperation with the Cambodian Mine Action Center, imported 15 African giant pouched rats into Cambodia to help detect landmines buried throughout the country. Endi