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SAMRAONG: Half a million evacuees in Cambodia and Thailand were sheltering in pagodas, schools, and other safe havens on Wednesday after fleeing fresh fighting in a long-standing border dispute in which US President Donald Trump has vowed to again intercede.
At least 14 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed in the latest fighting, officials said, while more than 500,000 people have fled border areas near where jets, tanks, and drones were waging battle.
Journalists in northwestern Cambodia’s Samraong town on Wednesday morning heard the blasts of incoming artillery from the direction of centuries-old temples in disputed border areas.
By the afternoon, hundreds of families were leaving a shelter at a pagoda near Samraong where they had been staying since Monday.
“Authorities say it is not safe anymore,” said Seut Soeung, 30, as she rested alongside a road with her family and vehicles passed by loaded with people, dogs, and bags of clothes.
A policeman who asked not to be named said the displaced families were being evacuated from the temple grounds due to safety concerns after a few Thai jets flew nearby.
Thailand and Cambodia dispute the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier, where competing claims to historic temples have spilled over into armed conflict.
This week’s clashes are the deadliest since five days of fighting in July that killed dozens before a shaky truce was agreed, following intervention by Trump.
Both sides blame each other for instigating the reignited conflict, which has expanded to five provinces of both Thailand and Cambodia, according to a tally of official accounts.
A Thai defence ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that more than 400,000 civilians have been evacuated to shelters.
‘Run for my life’
Sugarcane farmer Niam Poda fled her home — just five kilometres from the frontier — in Thailand’s border province of Sa Kaeo for the second time in five months.
The 62-year-old said she was doing laundry on Monday when a loud explosion rang out.
“I just had to run for my life as soon as I could,” she said at an evacuation centre, adding that she had left her medicines behind.
“Whatever happens next, I hope peace will come so I can go back to caring for my sugarcane in peace,” she added.
The Thai military announced an overnight curfew from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am in parts of Sa Kaeo beginning Wednesday night.
In Cambodia, more than 101,000 people have been evacuated to shelters and relatives’ homes, defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata told reporters.
“The Thai army fired indiscriminately into civilian areas and schools and especially shelled Ta Krabey temple,” she said, calling the contested border temple a “sacred site of Cambodia”.
Maly Socheata later said the Cambodian death toll had climbed to nine civilians, including an infant.
The Thai army, meanwhile, said Cambodian forces fired rockets early Wednesday that landed in the vicinity of the Phanom Dong Rak Hospital in Surin province — which was struck during previous clashes in July this year.
Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2025
