PHNOM PENH, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- An ongoing China-aided landmine elimination project has cleared over 150 square kilometers of land contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERWs) in Cambodia, benefiting about 2.5 million people, a mine clearance chief said on Thursday.

"From 2018 to late 2024, this project has made remarkable achievements by releasing landmines/unexploded ordnance (UXO) contaminated areas of 15,060 hectares, finding and destroying 82,844 landmines and UXOs," Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC)'s director general Heng Ratana said in a statement posted on social media.

There are approximately 2.5 million direct and indirect beneficiaries from this project, he added.

Ratana said China's grant aid under the "China-Aided Cambodia Landmines Elimination Project" has been supporting CMAC's landmine and ERW clearance operations in many Cambodian provinces.

Ly Thuch, a senior minister and first vice-president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), said the government and people of Cambodia highly valued the generosity of the Chinese people extending to the Cambodian people, particularly for the mine clearance sector.

"Over the years, China has provided financial support for our deminers to clear silent killers, the landmines," Thuch told Xinhua. "One landmine can destroy a whole family, so the support from China has saved our lives in Cambodia."

He said the mine-cleared land has become permanently safe for farmers, children, and households to build houses, schools, playgrounds, and temples, among others.

Regional and internal conflicts from the 1960s to late 1998 had left Cambodia as one of the most mine and ERW affected countries in the world. An estimated 4 to 6 million landmines and other munitions were left over from the almost three decades of war.

Thuch said Cambodia had cleared and released 3,297 square kilometers of land contaminated by all forms of explosive ordnances from 1992 to 2024, destroying more than 1.19 million anti-personnel mines, 26,567 anti-tank mines, and 3.19 million other ERWs.

According to the CMAA, from 1979 to 2024, landmine and ERW explosions claimed 19,834 lives and either injured or amputated 45,252 others.

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