{"id":2677,"date":"2026-08-18T05:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2677"},"modified":"2026-08-18T05:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:36:51","slug":"donor-fatigue-guts-demining-in-asia-as-active-conflicts-draw-away-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2677","title":{"rendered":"Donor fatigue guts demining in Asia, as active conflicts draw away funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AP) \u2014 En Poy was minding cattle in a former Khmer Rouge<\/span> stronghold in Cambodia when he set off his first land mine.<\/p>\n

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The blast from the rusty relic he picked up cost him an arm and an eye. It also inspired his career with the nonprofit Cambodian Self Help Demining, which clears land mines and unexploded ordnance across the country, deadly remnants of wars from the last century.<\/p>\n

Groups like Poy\u2019s that rely on foreign aid are struggling as donors shift funding for humanitarian demining toward active conflicts in Ukraine<\/span>, Gaza<\/span> and Sudan<\/span>, and to more recent wars, like in Syria<\/span> and Afghanistan<\/span>. Today\u2019s conflicts are also driving higher defense spending, leaving less money for aid.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development<\/span> and a 90-day freeze on foreign aid<\/span> last year worsened the problems, though American demining support to Cambodia<\/span> has restarted.<\/p>\n

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Cambodia\u2019s predicament shows that dangers remain even when fighting ends. Demining groups say that without international support, Southeast Asia\u2019s unfinished work clearing land mines and unexploded bombs will continue to endanger communities, maiming and killing people and slowing development for years to come.<\/p>\n

Poy was wounded in a second land mine explosion<\/span> that pierced his face and body with shrapnel and killed three of his colleagues. He now educates fellow Cambodians in high-risk areas on how to avoid such dangers. But he\u2019s not sure how long that will last.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one day donors stop funding my organization, I would definitely be sad because we haven\u2019t finished our job,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are still a lot of landmines left over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vietnam War\u2019s deadly legacy<\/h2>\n

The Vietnam War<\/span> bled into neighboring Cambodia and Laos, triggering strife that lasted long after the Americans fled the fall of Saigon<\/span>, including the Khmer Rouge\u2019s reign of terror<\/span>, which killed about 1.7 million Cambodians.<\/p>\n

Cambodia is one of the world\u2019s most land-mined countries<\/span>. Laos is the most heavily bombed country<\/span> per capita in history and Vietnam still battles the fallout of chemical weapons<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Since the wars ended, land mines and unexploded ordnance have killed approximately 90,000 people and wounded almost twice as many across the three countries.<\/p>\n

Leftover weapons lie beneath fields and forests, blocking construction of roads and schools. They are deadly discoveries, mistaken for toys<\/span> by children who account for more than 40% of the civilian casualties recorded globally since 1999 by the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, formed by nonprofit groups to track such issues.<\/p>\n

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Demining is slow and painstaking work.<\/p>\n

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