Updated

Cambodia's leader says his country needs more than $400 million in aid to remove by 2025 all of the land mines that are a legacy of years of civil war.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a statement Friday marking his nation's Mine Awareness Day that the mines remain a threat and kill or maim nearly 100 people a year.

He said Cambodia has cleared about 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) of mines, but nearly 2,000 square kilometers (770 square miles) of land remains littered with the munitions.

Some 60,000 Cambodians have been killed or wounded by mines since they were first deployed in large numbers in 1979, when the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime was ousted from power and began 18 years of guerrilla warfare.