Decades-Old Grenade Kills Two Toddlers in Rural Cambodia

The explosion occurred in a former battlefield area, highlighting the lingering danger of unexploded war munitions decades after the Cambodian civil war ended.

• Two two-year-old cousins, Muo Lisa and Thum Yen, were killed on February 22 when a rocket-propelled grenade detonated near their homes in Siem Reap province.
• The explosion occurred in the Svay Leu district, a region heavily impacted by conflict between the Cambodian government and Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Experts from the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) confirmed the explosive was a deteriorated grenade left over from the country's civil war.
• Since the end of Cambodia's decades-long conflict in 1998, millions of landmines and unexploded munitions have caused nearly 20,000 deaths and 45,000 injuries.
• Cambodia's demining efforts have faced funding challenges, including a recent temporary suspension of U.S. aid, though funding has now resumed.

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