20 soldiers killed by amunitions explosion at Cambodian army facility

The area around a military base in southwestern Cambodia was very safe on Sunday. This was because a big explosion had happened there the day before, which killed 20 soldiers, hurt others, and caused damage to nearby homes.

Guards tried to keep reporters away from the place in Kompong Speu province.

Hun Manet wrote on Facebook on Saturday that he was very surprised when he heard about the explosion in Chbar Mon district. It wasn’t clear right away what caused it.

A person who lives in a nearby village told The Associated Press on Sunday that they shook with fear when they heard the blast because they had never heard such a loud explosion before.

Chim Sothea said, “I was repairing my house with some builders when the explosion happened. ” All of a sudden, there was a big boom and it made my house shake. It also broke some tiles on my roof. They tripped but thankfully they didn’t fall into the house.

Pictures from the area showed many buildings in bad shape, some with their roofs missing. Also, soldiers were getting help at a hospital. Other pictures showed houses nearby with holes in their roofs.

Four buildings were destroyed, three were for storing things and one was a place to work. Some military vehicles were also damaged. ColYoueng Sokhon, a soldier at the site, told the army chief Gen. in a short report. Mao Sophan shared something on the internet. He also said that 25 houses of the villagers were damaged. Pictures of the base showed the broken buildings in a big empty space, with no houses nearby.

Another person from the village, who didn’t want to share their name, said they heard a loud noise and saw smoke coming from the army base, so they knew there had been an explosion at the weapons store. Then he quickly ran home from the little store where he sells food and drinks to be safe inside with his wife and two kids.

He said the army quickly blocked the road to the base and the people in the village were scared and looking for a safe place. So, he took his family to his parent’s house, which was farther from the base. When he got back home, he saw that his house was okay, but the other people in the village had broken windows, doors, and roofs.

Cambodia, along with many other countries in the area, has been having really hot weather. The province where the explosion happened had a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. High temperatures can’t make ammunition explode, but they can make explosives less stable over time. This means there is a risk that a small explosion could start a fire and make other explosives explode too.

Kiripost, an online news service in English, reported that a villager named Pheng Kimneang said there was a big explosion around 2:30 p. m, and then more smaller explosions for about an hour.

In March 2005, there was a big explosion at a place where weapons were stored in the town of Battambang. The explosion went on for hours, and at least six people died. It scared the people who lived nearby.

A report in 2014 from the group Small Arms Survey in Switzerland said that storing and handling weapons and explosives badly is a big problem all over the world. It also said that between 2013 and 2019, there were over 500 accidents where weapons and explosives exploded unexpectedly.

“One accident at a weapons site can hurt or kill a lot of people and force many to leave their homes,” it said. “The infrastructure can be damaged over a large area, covering many square kilometers. ” Moreover, the economic impact can be very big, causing millions of dollars in losses and affecting people’s lives and the environment for a long time.

Hun Manet expressed sorrow for the soldiers’ families and said the government will pay for their funerals and give money to the families of those who were hurt or killed.


He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point. Before becoming prime minister last year, he was in charge of the army. He took over as prime minister from his father, Hun Sen, who was the leader of Cambodia for 38 years.

WUS Ambassador is a person who represents the United States government in another country. Patrick Murphy, on the social media site X, said he was sorry for the families of the soldiers hurt in the explosion.