Fighting resumed Saturday morning along the Thailand-Cambodia frontier despite U.S. President Donald Trump saying he had secured agreement from both governments to restart a ceasefire. Thai officials said they had not agreed to a truce, and Cambodia had not publicly confirmed Trump’s statement; Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thai jets carried out airstrikes Saturday. Cambodian media reported Trump’s claim without further detail.
The latest large-scale exchanges followed a Dec. 7 skirmish that wounded two Thai soldiers and broke a truce that had halted five days of fighting in July. Those confrontations stem from long-standing territorial disputes along the border.
That July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia after Trump warned he would withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia reached an accord; the agreement was later spelled out in greater detail at a regional meeting in Malaysia in October that Trump attended.
Officials say nearly two dozen people have been officially reported killed in this week’s violence, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border. The Thai military acknowledges 11 troops killed and estimates roughly 165 Cambodian soldier fatalities. Cambodia has not published military casualty figures but says at least 11 civilians have been killed and 76 wounded.
On Friday, after separate conversations with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Trump announced that an agreement had been reached to resume the ceasefire. Despite that announcement, clashes continued into Saturday morning.
