Aid cuts and shifting geopolitical priorities leave Cambodian and regional demining groups struggling to remove deadly wartime relics
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenAssociated PressPublished: 12:35pm, 19 Aug 2026En Poy was minding cattle in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in Cambodia when he set off his first landmine.The blast from the rusty relic he picked up cost him an arm and an eye. It also inspired his career with non-profit organisation Cambodian Self Help Demining, which clears landmines and unexploded ordnance across the country, deadly remnants of wars from the last century.
Groups like Poy’s that rely on foreign aid are struggling as donors shift funding for humanitarian demining towards active conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, and to more recent wars, like in Syria and Afghanistan. Today’s conflicts are also driving higher defence spending, leaving less money for aid.
Cambodia’s predicament shows that dangers remain even when fighting ends.
Demining groups say that without international support, Southeast Asia’s unfinished work clearing landmines and unexploded bombs will continue to endanger communities, maiming and killing people and slowing development for years to come.
