Cambodia Condemns Cluster Bomb Use as New Contamination Burden Grows

Cambodia Condemns Cluster Bomb Use as New Contamination Burden Grows

VIENTIANE, Sept. 14, 2026 — Cambodia has strongly condemned the use of cluster munitions, warning that the country faces a new humanitarian challenge after decades of clearing mines and unexploded ordnance left by past conflicts.

Senior Minister Ly Thuch, First Vice Chairman of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority, delivered the remarks Monday at the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Laos. The conference is being held from September 14–18 under the theme of accelerating progress toward a world free from the threat of cluster munitions.

Ly Thuch said Cambodia has spent more than 33 years clearing mines and explosive remnants of war, releasing more than 3,500 square kilometres of land and destroying millions of explosive devices.

However, he said Cambodia had not expected to have to begin dealing with a new contamination crisis while the country was still addressing its wartime legacy.

According to Ly Thuch, during the 2025 Cambodia-Thailand border conflict, cluster munitions were used in Cambodian territory and communities, creating nearly 4,000 square kilometres of newly affected areas, of which almost 3,000 square kilometres were contaminated by cluster munitions.

Cambodia attributes the new contamination to the use of weapons by Thai military forces.

Ly Thuch said the new threat has increased the burden on Cambodia’s mine-action sector and placed civilians, particularly farmers, at risk. He added that civilians had been killed and injured, while more than 20,000 people remained displaced and unable to return to their homes.

“Cambodia has not even finished clearing the remnants of past wars, yet we now face a new humanitarian burden of nearly 4,000 square kilometres,” Ly Thuch said, stressing that the additional contamination requires greater resources and international efforts to protect affected communities.

Cambodia’s position comes despite the country not being a state party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Ly Thuch said Cambodia nevertheless fully supports the objectives of the convention and has never produced or used cluster munitions.

He said Cambodia opposes and condemns the use of cluster munitions and is prepared to share its decades of experience in clearance operations, risk education and victim assistance with countries facing similar threats.

The Cambodian Mine Action Authority has previously condemned alleged cluster-munition use along the Cambodia-Thailand border and called for an immediate end to the deployment of such weapons.

The Third Review Conference in Vientiane brings together states parties and partners to review progress under the Convention on Cluster Munitions and develop the next phase of international efforts against the weapons. The conference is scheduled to continue through September 18.

For Cambodia, Ly Thuch’s intervention underscored the country’s dual challenge: completing the clearance of a decades-old legacy of war while responding to what Phnom Penh describes as a new contamination threat arising from the 2025 border conflict.