On April 3, the very first statute dedicated to a mine-sniffer rat was unveiled in Siem Reap, Cambodia, just in time for International Day for Mine Awareness. The statue is a seven-foot likeness Magawa, a highly skilled minesweeper rat.

Magawa had a successful career. He concluded training and was sent out to the field in 2016 and had a five-year run as a minesweeper rat. During his career, Magawa sniffed out over 100 explosives, clearing more than 1.5 million square feet of landmines. His speed was impressive, being able to search a field the size of a tennis court in 20 minutes. He was awarded the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals Gold Medal (PDSA) in 2020, then retired due to age in 2021.

The African giant pouch rat was trained by the Belgian charity APOPO, an organization responsible for training animals to sniff landmines and diseases like tuberculosis. He was the first of APOPO’s rats to be presented with a medal in the charity’s 77-year history.

Cambodia has the highest rate of mine amputees per capita with a staggering count of 40,000 people who’ve lost limbs to bombs. This is due to the unexploded mines that remain from a series of conflicts regarding the Vietnam War in the 1960s, leaving Cambodia littered with millions of landmines.

Magawa serves as a reminder of the efforts being made to rid Cambodia of this danger, saving innumerable lives.