PHNOM PENH, April 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Twenty Cambodian soldiers have been
killed in an ammunition explosion at an army base, Prime Minister Hun Manet
said Saturday.

The blast at around 2.45pm (0745 GMT) at the army base in Kampong Speu
province to the west of the capital also wounded several soldiers, according
to the PM, with the army saying that an entire truck of munitions had
exploded.

"I am deeply shocked to receive the news of the ammunition explosion
incident," Hun Manet said in a statement on Facebook, expressing his "deepest
condolences" to the families of those killed.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the explosion.

Pictures on social media showed a destroyed one-storey building wreathed in
smoke, with residents of a nearby village also sharing images online of
broken windows.

Other images showed what appeared to be civilians with cuts and gashes being
treated in hospital.

Munitions accidents are not uncommon in Cambodia, which is awash with
ammunition following decades of civil conflict -- accidents that are
exacerbated by frequently lax safety standards.

Cambodia's army said the incident was a "warehouse ammunition explosion",
that had destroyed a truck fully loaded with weaponry.

An office building as well as nearby barracks were destroyed, with 25 nearby
homes also battered by the resulting explosion.

In his statement, Hun Manet said he had ordered the defense minister and the
commander-in-chief of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to urgently arrange
funerals for the soldiers who died.

He also said that the families of those killed would receive roughly $20,000
each, while injured soldiers would get $5,000.

- Unexploded ammunition -

Cambodia is littered with discarded ammunition and arms from decades of civil
war from the 1960s.

In 2005, five Cambodians were killed and three injured after an explosion in
a major military arms depot some two kilometres outside the northwestern town
of Battambang. It was unclear what had caused the explosion and resulting
fire.

Deaths from mines and unexploded ordnance are more frequent, with roughly
20,000 people killed in Cambodia since 1979 and twice as many wounded in
landmine and unexploded ordnance accidents.

In 2018, an Australian and a Cambodian were killed when war-era ordnance
exploded during a de-mining training exercise in southern Cambodia.

Clearance work continues to this day, with the government vowing to clear all
mines and unexploded ordnance by 2025.

Only last week four people were also killed by unexploded ordnance (UXO),
according to the Cambodian Mine Action Centre.

Last year thousands of pieces of UXO left over from the civil war were
unearthed inside a northeastern school, including some 2,000 explosives.