Brief incident in Sa Kaeo raises temperature as all work stops on peace agreement
PHNOM PENH – Cambodia and Thailand traded accusations of fresh clashes along their border on Wednesday, after Bangkok said it was pausing the implementation of a US-backed peace deal.
Officials on both sides have reported gunfire across the boundary between Sa Kaeo province in Thailand and Banteay Meanchey in Cambodia, but their accounts differed.
“Thai soldiers opened fire on civilians,” Cambodian information minister Neth Pheaktra told AFP, citing local authorities who reported five people wounded.
The Cambodian Ministry of Defence, as well as Prime Minister Hun Manet, subsequently said one person had been killed. The reports could not be independently verified.
“I condemn the use of violence by the Thai side on Cambodian civilians in Prey Chan village in the late afternoon of November 12, 2025 which resulted in three Cambodian civilians wounded and one dead,” Hun Manet wrote on Facebook.
‘Warning shots’
Royal Thai Army spokesman Maj Gen Winthai Suvaree said Cambodian soldiers “fired shots into Thai territory” around 4pm and that Thai troops “took cover and fired warning shots in response”.
“The incident lasted about 10 minutes before calm was restored,” he said in a statement. “No Thai casualties were reported.”
The disputed frontier settlement, which Thailand says is part of Ban Nong Ya Kaew village in Sa Kaeo, but which Cambodia says is part of Prey Chan village in Banteay Meanchey, has been the site of previous confrontations.
Cambodia’s information ministry shared images and video which it alleged showed wounded civilians, including one man being treated in an ambulance with a bloodied leg.
AFP was not able to verify the provenance of the images.
Cambodian villager Hul Malis told AFP by phone that gunfire from across the border had wounded at least three people in her area.
“They just shot at us. We did nothing,” she said. “I am so frightened, I am running away now.”
Her husband, Thong Kimleang, told AFP the Thai military “fired a lot of shots” for around 15 minutes.
Five days of hostilities at a handful of border flashpoints in late July killed 43 people and displaced around 300,000 before a ceasefire took effect.
However, Thailand paused implementation of a follow-on deal to wind down hostilities, after a blast from what it said was a newly laid landmine wounded four of its soldiers on Monday.
“We are of the view the agreement for peace is over,” Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday. “From now on, the Thai government will do what is in the best interests of Thailand. This is what Thailand will do, without having to consult with or seek approval from anyone else.”
The dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbours centres on a century-old disagreement over their borders mapped during France’s colonial rule in the region, with both sides claiming a handful of border temples.
The ceasefire began on July 29 after US President Donald Trump threatened more trade penalties of the hostilities continued. Chinese diplomats and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim also helped the process along.
Thailand and Cambodia signed a joint declaration last month, agreeing to withdraw heavy weapons and allowing ceasefire monitors access to the border.
While the deal failed to address the core territorial claims issue, Trump flew into Kuala Lumpur to oversee the signing, which he cited as evidence of his presidential peace-making abilities.
But the fresh landmine blast and renewed clashes have thrown the deal’s future into doubt.
Thailand has already delayed the release of 18 captured Cambodian soldiers, a key plank of the declaration.