Cambodia evacuates hundreds from disputed Thai border as tensions reignite

Evacuation of a frontier village takes place after a shooting reportedly kills one resident.

An observer team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on November 13, 2025, visits an area where a civilian was killed a day earlier along the Cambodia-Thailand border [Agence Kampuchea Press via AFP]

By News Agencies

Published On 13 Nov 202513 Nov 2025

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Cambodia has evacuated hundreds of its citizens from a village on the disputed border it shares with Thailand as tensions between the neighbours are flaring, threatening a ceasefire agreed in July.

About 250 families from Prey Chan in Cambodia’s northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey were taken on Thursday to a Buddhist temple 29km (18 miles) from the border, according to provincial Vice Governor Ly Sovannarith.

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The evacuation took place a day after a man identified as Dy Nai was said to have been killed in a shootout between Cambodian and Thai soldiers around the same frontier village.

Three others were injured in the incident, according to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

Both sides blamed the other for what happened on Wednesday, claiming they were not the first to open fire.

Thai Major General Winthai Suvaree said Cambodian soldiers initiated the shooting while Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence said Thai soldiers began the gunfight about 3:50pm (08:50 GMT).

The shooting lasted for about 10 minutes, according to the Thai army.

Residents of Prey Chan village in Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province carry a coffin on November 13, 2025, with the body of a civilian believed to have been killed in gunfire between Thai and Cambodian soldiers on their disputed border [Agence Kampuchea Press via AP]

The deadly incident is just the latest to raise questions about the Thai-Cambodian ceasefire that went into effect in July after five days of fighting killed dozens of people and temporarily displaced thousands.

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Earlier in the week, Thailand accused Cambodia of laying new landmines after saying one of its soldiers had lost a foot when a mine exploded on Monday near their border in Thailand’s Sisaket province.

The Cambodian Defence Ministry has denied the allegation, insisting that the mine must have been placed there during previous confrontations. In response, Bangkok called Phnom Penh’s response insufficient.

After saying its soldier was wounded on Monday, Thailand announced that it was suspending an enhanced ceasefire that the two sides signed in late October with the support of United States President Donald Trump.

As part of this suspension, Bangkok said it was halting the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers, which had been scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

The development came less than three weeks after Trump cosigned the deal in Kuala Lumpur along with Malaysia’s, Cambodia’s and Thailand’s prime ministers at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” the US president boasted.

The territorial dispute over the two nations’ 800km (500-mile) frontier has lasted for decades, the result of a vaguely defined French border treaty in 1907. At the time, Cambodia was a French colony.