Cambodia closes border crossings as fighting with Thailand continues

# Cambodia closes border crossings as fighting with Thailand continues

*Event date: 2025-12-13*

Cambodia has closed its border crossings with Thailand as fighting continued between the two countries, according to BBC News. The move came despite US President Donald Trump saying both sides had agreed to a ceasefire deal after speaking with the two governments.

The BBC reported that Cambodia’s interior ministry ordered the crossings shut until further notice. The announcement followed another day of artillery exchanges, bombing and claims of air strikes on both sides of the border. Thai officials said four soldiers were killed on Saturday, bringing the Thai military death toll since Monday to 15, while 270 others had been injured. Cambodia said at least 11 civilians had been killed and 59 injured the day before.

The latest fighting adds to a border conflict that has become a test of whether outside diplomacy can stop a long-running territorial dispute from flaring up again. Trump said earlier in the week that he could stop the fighting by picking up the phone. After speaking with the two prime ministers on Friday night, he posted that both countries had agreed to cease shooting and return to the agreement they signed in October. But neither side’s own comments suggested an immediate end to the fighting.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said a ceasefire would only be possible once Cambodia withdrew its forces and removed landmines from the border. He said Thailand was not the aggressor and that Cambodia had to show it had changed its position first. Cambodia’s leadership, by contrast, said it had to keep fighting to protect sovereignty. The gap between those positions explains why the border remained active even after Trump’s intervention.

On Saturday, Cambodia said it had again been struck by Thai air attacks. Its defence ministry said Thai military aircraft, including two F-16s, dropped seven bombs on multiple targets. Thailand also confirmed that fighting continued. BBC News said the Thai military reported civilian injuries from a Cambodian rocket attack, while Cambodia accused Thai fighter jets of bombing hotel buildings and a bridge. Those competing claims highlight how little trust exists between the two sides.

The human cost is already large. BBC News said at least 700,000 people have been evacuated on both sides of the border. The fighting has also affected six provinces in north-eastern Thailand and six provinces in Cambodia’s north and north-west. The scale of displacement suggests the clashes are no longer a border skirmish but a broader regional crisis with humanitarian consequences.

The border dispute itself is old. BBC News said the two countries have contested their 800km land border for more than a century, tracing the line back to French cartography in 1907 when France ruled Cambodia. That history matters because it shows the present clash is rooted in unresolved colonial-era boundaries as much as immediate military decisions.

For now, the ceasefire language has not matched the battlefield reality. Cambodia’s border closure makes that clear: whatever was said in phone calls and social media posts, the guns had not stopped. Until the two governments agree on withdrawal, mine clearance and verification, the conflict looks set to keep moving between diplomacy and escalation.