Travellers have been urged to keep away from several regions of Thailand and Cambodia after renewed violence erupted between the 2 countries.
Border skirmishes have killed 4 Cambodian people and one Thai soldier and compelled tens of 1000’s of individuals to flee their homes.
The fatalities occurred during an exchange of gunfire in a disputed area of the border.
The Thai military accused Cambodian troops of opening fire, killing one soldier and injuring several others.
Cambodia says the Thai army shot first, and that the Cambodian victims were all civilians.
Since then, the Thai air force has carried out air strikes which it says targeted ‘only military targets’, insisting the ‘highly precise’ bombing didn’t hit civilians.
The Foreign Office is currently advising against ‘all but essential travel’ to anywhere inside 30 miles of the frontier.
This implies tourists and backpackers must avoid it and doing so will invalidate most types of travel insurance they could have purchased.
The identical advice can be in place for several southern Thai provinces near the border with Malaysia where there stays an ongoing risk of terror sttacks.
It’s the second time this yr that the border dispute has turned violent, following a confrontation between soldiers that turned deadly in May.
As many as 12 people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed in clashes that followed.
They were centred within the Thai Surin province and the Cambodian Oddar Meanchey province – with either side blaming one another for firing the primary shot.
An F-16 jet has been deployed by Thailand, firing into Cambodia multiple times and destroying a military goal. Meanwhile, artillery and rockets have been fired from the Cambodian side.
This conflict has been simmering for months – with diplomatic relations deteriorating – and in reality the dispute over the region goes back almost a century.
Thailand-Cambodia conflict at a look
Clashes have again erupted between Thailand and Cambodia over a long-running border dispute.
The Foreign Office has issued further travel advice to British residents in Thailand.
A dozen people have been killed, including a boy, aged eight, and a teen, aged 15, in Thailand.
Either side have accused the opposite of firing the primary shot.
Nobody knows if it’ll boil over and right into a full-blown war – but Cambodia has confirmed that it’ll start military conscription as early as next yr.
With scarce information available in regards to the situation, Metro has prepared an explainer for those on the bottom and people monitoring it from far-off.
Why are Thailand and Cambodia fighting?
At the center of the conflict are differing interpretations of the colonial-era maps drawn greater than a century ago in an accord between Siam (modern-day Thailand) and France, which was then accountable for Cambodia.
Cambodia has been using the 1907 map as a reference to assert territory, but Thailand has argued it was never officially accepted.
This ambiguity led to a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1962, which awarded the land and the Eleventh-century temple Preah Vihear to Cambodia.
What led to the recent clashes?
Border disputes have long caused tensions between the 2 neighbours – but nationalist movements have further inflamed them.
Relations hit all-time low in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in a disputed border area.
On Thursday, Cambodia downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelling the Thai ambassador and recalling Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok.
The day before, its neighbour also withdrew its ambassador and expelled the highest Cambodian diplomat in protest after five Thai soldiers who were wounded in a land mine blast, certainly one of whom lost a part of a leg.
Thailand has since shut all its border points with its neighbour.
What we all know to date in regards to the Thailand-Cambodia conflict
This summer’s fighting broke out near the Khmer Hindu temple Ta Muen Thom, along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
The Thai military said Cambodian soldiers had opened fire near the temple, and deployed a surveillance drone. Additional forces – armed with heavy weapons, including BM-21 rocket launchers and artillery – were deployed shortly after.
Either side claimed they were acting in self-defence and blamed the opposite for the skirmish.
To date, 11 Thai civilians and one soldier have been killed, including a boy, aged eight, and a teen, aged 15.
Most individuals were killed in a rocket attack near a supermarket and a gas station in Sisaket province. One other 14 people have also been injured.
It stays unclear if there are any fatalities on the Cambodian side as the federal government has remained tight-lipped about its losses.
Is it secure to travel to Thailand and Cambodia? Latest Foreign Office travel advice
Each nations attract large numbers of British tourists yearly, nevertheless it is unclear how many voters are in each country currently.
The Foreign Office has urged travellers from the UK to ‘take extra care and stay alert in border areas’, saying: ‘Take extra care and stay alert in border areas and follow the instructions of local authorities, especially at tourist destinations equivalent to the Preah Vihear temple, the Ta Kwai temple and the Ta Muen Thom temple.
‘There are also unexploded landmines within the border area. Stay on marked paths, especially around Ta Krabey.’
The FCDO confirmed that land borders and crossings between Cambodia and Thailand are temporarily suspended.
Individually, the UK advises against all but essential travel to parts of the south, near the Thailand-Malaysia border, including the Pattani Province, Yala Province, Narathiwat Province and southern Songkhla Province – south of the A43 road between Hat Yai and Sakom, and south of the train line which runs between Hat Yai and Padang Besar.
FCDO also advises against all but essential travel on the Hat Yai to Padang Besar train line that runs through these provinces.
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