Teams dig up UXO in sites across Preah Sihanouk

Explosive experts from the Preah Sihanouk provincial Weapons Control Authority and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) were called to Sihanoukville this week after unexploded ordnance (UXO) were found by construction workers.

Across four sites, a total of 135 UXO were found, with 55 set off in controlled explosions and another 80 impounded in a Weapons Control Authority warehouse for destruction later.

Nang Saroeun, Preah Sihanouk provincial deputy head at the Weapons Control Authority, told The Post on Wednesday that the ordnance included “107mm, 85mm and 82mm mortar rounds”.

“They are a legacy of war in the 1970s,” Saroeun added.

Bun Saroth, a mobile demining team group leader at CMAC, said a Sihanoukville resident on Monday reported that workers on a nearby construction site in Bey commune found five artillery shells while digging the foundations for an apartment block.

Saroth’s team and the experts from the Weapons Control office spent Tuesday and Wednesday searching the construction site. They found 124 additional mortar rounds.

Contact author: Khouth Sophak Chakrya

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