News – December 2025

  • Palestine Seeks International Cooperation To Clear Gaza’s Unexploded Ordnance

    December 31, 2025

    The Palestinian government said on Tuesday that it is partnering with international organisations to remove unexploded ordnance in Gaza, reported Xinhua. Field surveys, marking of contaminated areas, and training of local personnel have already begun in Gaza, and the Palestinian Mine Action Centre is working to form a broad international coalition for the task once technical ...

  • Thailand and Cambodia reach ceasefire deal to end weeks of fighting

    December 27, 2025

    Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire on Saturday, the two countries said in a joint statement issued by the Cambodian side, pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes. The neighbors’ long-standing border conflict reignited this month, shattering an earlier truce and killing at least 47 people, according to official counts. Around one ...

  • India gets its first standard for bomb disposal systems

    December 27, 2025

    The new standard, IS 19445:2025, was developed at the request of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory. It establishes comprehensive guidelines for evaluating bomb disposal systems against blast loads and splinter effects. Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare said the standard is intended for “voluntary adoption” by procurement agencies, manufacturers, ...

  • Thailand: Army denies Cambodian cluster munitions claims

    December 25, 2025

    The army has rejected Cambodia’s claims about cluster munitions, stating its weapons only target military objectives. The Royal Thai Army (RTA) said it has dismissed the claims as a distortion of the facts in an attempt to undermine Thailand’s credibility. It said Thai military operations strictly comply with international humanitarian law. RTA spokesman Maj Gen Winthai ...

  • Cambodia, Japan review mine action progress, express concern over border hostilities

    December 25, 2025

    Cambodia and Japan have reaffirmed their strong cooperation in humanitarian demining while voicing concern over the ongoing Cambodia–Thailand border conflict, which has caused civilian casualties and widespread social disruption. Heng Ratana, Royal Government Delegate in Charge and Director General of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), held a meeting with Konagaya Hideaki, Director of the First ...

  • UK charity to expand work to clear explosives in Gaza

    December 23, 2025

    The Gaza Strip will need extensive work to remove explosives and reconstruct amid the “immense” level of devastation caused by the war, the world’s largest landmine-clearing charity has said. The Halo Trust will be expanding its activities in the Palestinian enclave in 2026, helping to keep people safe from explosives and dangerous debris, as it looks ...

  • Iraq: Shepherd injured, livestock killed in separate mine explosions in Sulaimani

    December 22, 2025

    Two separate mine explosions in Sulaimani province on Sunday injured a shepherd and killed 25 sheep and goats, after one mine detonated among a flock in the Sangasar sub-district of Pishdar district while another exploded near a shepherd in the village of Mergapan, the Kurdistan Region’s Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) said. “In the village of Mergapan ...

  • Iraq: Floods unearth hidden mines, reviving a wartime threat from Kirkuk to the Iran border

    December 22, 2025

    Heavy rains and flash floods are bringing an old danger back to the surface across Iraq: landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) long buried under soil that many communities had come to treat as “safe.” From southern Kirkuk and the outskirts of Tuz Khurmatu’s Amerli district in Saladin to the Iraqi-Iranian border belt in Wasit, residents ...