Thailand declares curfew along coast as border clashes with Cambodia enter second week
Thailand's curfew covers five districts of Trat province that neighbour Koh Kong. Residents are prohibited from leaving their homes between 7pm and 5am.
Former migrant worker Cheav Sokun (right) and her son wash plates and bowls at a temporary camp for displaced people set up at a former market in Banteay Meanchey province on Dec 13, 2025 amid clashes along the Cambodia-Thailand border. (Photo: AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)
BANGKOK : Thailand announced a curfew in its southeastern Trat province on Sunday (Dec 14) as fighting with Cambodia spread to coastal areas of a disputed border region, two days after US President and would-be peacemaker Donald Trump said the sides had agreed to stop.
The Southeast Asian neighbours have resorted to arms several times this year since a Cambodian soldier was killed in a May skirmish, reigniting a conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
"Overall, there have been clashes continuously" since Cambodia again reiterated its openness to a ceasefire on Saturday, Thai Defence Ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri told a press conference in Bangkok after announcing the curfew.
Thailand is open to a diplomatic solution but "Cambodia has to cease hostility first before we can negotiate", he said.
Thai forces on Saturday said they had destroyed a bridge that Cambodia used to deliver heavy weapons and other equipment to the region and launched an operation targeting pre-positioned artillery in Cambodia's coastal Koh Kong province.
Cambodia accused Thailand of striking civilian infrastructure.
Thailand's curfew covers five districts of Trat province that neighbour Koh Kong, excluding the tourist islands of Koh Chang and Koh Kood.
Residents are prohibited from leaving their homes between 7pm and 5am in Khlong Yai, Bo Rai, Laem Ngop, Khao Saming and Mueang Trat, according to The Nation.
The military had previously imposed a curfew in the eastern Sakeo province, which remains in force.
Thailand and Cambodia have exchanged heavy-weapons fire at multiple points along their 817km border since Monday, in some of the most intense fighting since a five-day clash in July that ended with Trump and Malaysian mediation.
Trump said he spoke to Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian premier Hun Manet on Friday, and said they had agreed to "cease all shooting".
On Saturday, Anutin vowed to keep fighting "until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people".
A White House spokesperson later said Trump expected all parties to honour commitments and that "he will hold anyone accountable as necessary to stop the killing and ensure durable peace".
Each side blames the other for instigating the clashes, claiming self-defence and trading accusations of attacks on civilians.
Thai defence ministry spokesman Surasant Kongsiri said Cambodia shelled and bombed several border provinces overnight.
Cambodia's defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata, meanwhile, said Thailand continued to fire mortars and bombs into border areas since midnight.
"I have been here for six days and I feel sad that the fighting continues," 63-year-old Sean Leap told AFP at an evacuation centre in Cambodia's border province of Banteay Meanchey on Sunday.
"I want it to stop," he said, adding he was worried about his home and livestock.
At least 25 people have been killed, including 14 Thai soldiers and 11 Cambodian civilians, officials said.
CLOSED BORDER CROSSINGS
After Trump's promised truce did not come to pass, Cambodia shut its border crossings with Thailand on Saturday, leaving migrant workers stranded.
Under a makeshift tent at an evacuation site in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey, Cheav Sokun told AFP her husband in Thailand wanted to return home.
She and her son left Thailand alongside tens of thousands of other Cambodian migrant workers during July's deadly clashes, but her spouse stayed to work as a gardener with his "good Thai boss".
"He asked me to return first. After that, the border was closed so he cannot come back," the 38-year-old said.
"I worry about him, but I tell him not to go around... We are afraid that if they know that we are Cambodians, they would attack us," she said.
Across the border in Thailand's Surin province, music teacher Watthanachai Kamngam, 38, told AFP he watched several rockets trail across the dark, early morning sky on Sunday before hearing explosions in the distance.
Watthanachai has been painting colourful scenes of tanks, Thai flags and soldiers carrying the wounded on the walls of concrete bunkers since the July clashes which killed dozens.
"As I live through the fighting, I just want to record this moment - to show that this is really our reality," he told AFP last week.
The United States, China and Malaysia, as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN, brokered a ceasefire in July.
In October, Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed to prolong their truce.
But Thailand suspended the agreement the following month after Thai soldiers were wounded by landmines at the border.
Trump last week pledged he would "make a couple of phone calls" to get the earlier brokered truce back on track.
But Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told journalists on Saturday that Trump "didn't mention whether we should make a ceasefire" during their Friday phone call.
Anutin said there were "no signs" Trump would connect further US-Thailand trade talks with the border conflict, but also said the US president had guaranteed Thailand would get "better benefits than other countries".
In a statement on Saturday, Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that he had called on both countries to cease cross-border hostilities by 10pm local time on Saturday, with an ASEAN observer team to monitor the truce on the ground.
Anutin on Saturday evening reiterated that no ceasefire had been reached with Cambodia, saying that it is "likely a misunderstanding", reported Bangkok Post.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, in a statement on Saturday on Facebook, had said that he welcomed the proposal by Anwar.
