PHNOM PENH, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Landmines have killed at least 19 people in Cambodia in the first eight months of the year, down from 26 deaths over the same period last year, the figures of the Cambodia Mine Action Center (CMAC) showed Thursday.
The latest remarkable accident happened last month in northwestern Preah Vihear province when a home-made truck ran onto an old anti-tank mine, leaving 6 farmers dead.
Besides the dead, during the January-August period this year, 64 others were injured, down 36 percent from 101 injuries over the same period last year, the figures said.
The Southeast Asian nation is one of the world's worst countries suffered from landmines. An estimated 4 million to 6 million landmines and other munitions left over from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998.
Heng Ratana, CMAC's director general, said to date, about 3.1 million landmines and unexploded ordnances have been removed and destroyed, and the country needed about 50 million U.S. dollars a year until 2020 to entirely get rid of all types of anti-personnel mines.
From 1979 to August this year, about 19,681 people had been killed by landmines and 44,605 others were injured, the CMAC said.