Web desk: The ongoing Thailand-Cambodia clash has sparked widespread public attention. Here are the key facts you need to know.
The Thailand-Cambodia border dispute is based on a colonial period dispute over Preah Vihear temple. In 1907, a survey of the temple done by Frenchmen surveyors made the temple part of Cambodia, although Thai protested. This set the basis of an extended dispute.
In 1962, the international justice court ruled that Cambodia had sovereign rights over the temple. But it flared up again in 2008, when UNESCO designated the temple as the World Heritage site which agitated military tensions between the two countries.
The situation has been greatly raised in recent activities in 2025. A leaked cell phone conversation of Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen emerged on the net in June.
The recording captured Shinawatra in an apparently submissive tone which caused domestic upheaval in Thailand. She was consequently suspended out of office and her coalition government failed. The Thailand-Cambodia uncertainty in politics contributed to escalation of border tensions.
On July 24, 2025, a military conflict flared up in the middle of a conflict over the Ta Muen Thom temple. Thailand claimed that there were some Cambodian attacks on Thai positions which necessitated the Thais to retaliate by the use of artillery and airstrikes. BM-21 rockets were fired back by Cambodia.
Soon the fighting expanded to multiple locations across the border becoming a direct armed confrontation.
The humanitarian consequence has been so harsh. The Thai authorities reported 14 or more civilian deaths and Cambodia one death. On each side dozens of people got wounded. There are more than 120,000 displaced people in Thailand and thousands of others in Cambodia fleeing their homes because of shelling and cross border attacks.
As a reaction to the Thailand-Cambodia clashes, Thailand has shut down all its border posts with Cambodia and recalled the ambassador. There have been downgrading of diplomatic ties. The country threatened Cambodia again to appeal to the International Court of Justice.
In the meantime, the United Nations Security Council has held emergency missions, and a number of nations have called on the two sides to cool off. Thailand has denied the role of third-party in the conflict and claims to talk bilaterally.
Thai soldiers are also casualties of the landmines. Thailand has also blamed Cambodia of putting mines in the area under dispute which Cambodia has denied. The crisis is still at its boiling point yet there is still no reported ceasefire or truce and the military and diplomatic operations are still in the making.
The Thailand-Cambodia clash is ongoing, keep following for more.
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