SEMIS III Team Visit Demining Operation In Cambodia

In October 2019 members of the SEMIS III project team, Professor Anthony Peyton, Dr. Adam Fletcher and Wouter Van Verre visited Cambodia to observe mine clearance operations undertaken in the Battambang province by MAG.

Whilst there the team also met up with Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation Chief Executive Lou McGrath OBE and together they were able to go into the field to experience at first hand the conditions deminers face on a daily basis.

Guided by MAG Technical Advisor Shathel Fahs, the visit brought home the difficulty of the environment in which the deminers operate– humidity is high and vast swathes of vegetation have to be cleared before any demining can take place. They also observed the painstaking nature of landmine clearance– with even the excavation of a bullet casing taking half an hour.

Discussions with Shathel and his demining team also allowed the SEMIS group to gain an understanding into the logistics involved in running demining operations in the field and the requirements of the deminers themselves. The information gathered has proved invaluable in informing the final design stages of the dual modality detector the SEMIS III team is developing.

Read more about Project SEMIS here.