Thai PM says military will keep fighting and Cambodia suspends border crossings as casualties rise

• Thailand-Cambodia fighting explained

Thailand’s caretaker prime minister has denied the existence of a ceasefire with Cambodia, despite Donald Trump announcing that both countries had agreed to halt fighting.

As heavy clashes continued along the border between the two countries, Anutin Charnvirakul said on Saturday that Thailand had not agreed to a ceasefire with Cambodia and that its forces would continue fighting. Cambodia announced it had suspended all border crossings with Thailand.

Displaced people in Thailand voice doubts that Donald Trump can stop the fighting as violence flares on the border

• Half a million flee as deadly Cambodia-Thailand border clashes escalate

Rangsan Angda and many of his neighbours in border areas of Thailand had already packed their bags, fearing that a ceasefire with neighbouring Cambodia would soon collapse.

The ceasefire deal – brokered by Donald Trump, who proclaimed himself “President of PEACE” after he helped end five days of deadly clashes in July – had seemed precarious from the start. “Both sides are confronting one another all the time,” said Angda, 50.

At least 15 people killed, while more than 500,000 people have fled border areas near where jets, tanks and drones were waging battle

Half a million evacuees in Cambodia and Thailand were sheltering in pagodas, schools and other safe havens on Wednesday after fleeing fresh border clashes while US president Donald Trump vowed to intercede to stop the fighting.

At least 15 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed in the latest hostilities, officials said, while more than 500,000 people have fled border areas near where jets, tanks and drones were waging battle.

After a ceasefire deal he brokered collapsed, Trump told a rally in Pennsylvania that he would ‘make a call’ to ‘stop a war’ between Thailand and Cambodia

US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will make a call regarding reignited hostilities on the Thai-Cambodia border, where fighting has resumed less than two months after a ceasefire he brokered between the two nations collapsed.

Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, the US president reiterated his global peacemaking skills, proclaiming that “in ten months I ended eight wars”, before listing hostilities between Kosovo and Serbia, Pakistan and India, and Israel and Iran.

Hostilities have flared in the contested border area after a Trump-brokered ceasefire deal has broken down

Stretching across more than 817km (508 miles), the shared land border between Thailand and Cambodia has been marred by conflict for more than a century. Sovereignty has been contested since France, which occupied Cambodia until 1953, first mapped the border in 1907.

However, tensions have worsened significantly in 2025. In May, clashes in the area that killed a Cambodian soldier sparked nationalist sentiment on both sides, and saw both governments retaliate. Thailand imposed harsh border restrictions, while Cambodia banned the broadcast of Thai films, and the import of Thai fruit, vegetables, gas and fuel.