Magawa was an African giant pouched rat who lived to be eight years old. He worked for five years detecting mines and other explosives, with his career beginning in 2016. During his career, Magawa found over 100 landmines, contributing to making large areas of the country safer.
He could search an area the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes and searched over 141,000 square meters of land in total. Magawa used his keen sense of smell to detect chemical substances in explosives and signal to his human colleagues, who then defused the mines. Magawa was trained by the Belgian charity Apopo, which has been training so-called HeroRATS and HeroDOGS to detect mines since the 1990s.
Due to their low weight, the rats are not heavy enough to trigger explosions, making them a safer alternative than humans for mine clearance. In 2020, Magawa was awarded the prestigious PDSA Gold Medal, often called the 'George Cross for animals,' for his life-saving work, and he was the first rat to receive the award in the organization's history. Magawa retired shortly after receiving the award and started 'taking it a bit easier,' according to Apopo.
Another Apopo-trained rat, Ronin, set a new record in 2025 by detecting 109 landmines and 15 unexploded ordnance. Apopo's rats are also used in other missions, such as detecting tuberculosis much faster than traditional laboratory methods and being trained to combat illegal wildlife trade in Tanzania. Landmines, left over from the Vietnam War and subsequent conflicts in Cambodia during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, remain a major problem.
According to the UN, over one million people in the country still live and work on land contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance. Cambodia aims to be free of mines by 2030. The statue was unveiled in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The exact date of the statue's unveiling and who funded or commissioned it remain unknown, as does the specific progress toward the 2030 mine-free goal. Michael Raine, program manager for Apopo in Cambodia, said at a press conference that the monument to Magawa is a reminder to the international community that there is still work to be done. How many mine-clearing rats are currently active in Cambodia and what the current casualty rates from landmines are have not been confirmed.