In a hospital ward in Cambodia’s Mongkol Borei district, the brutal price of the renewed border war with Thailand is etched on the wounded and the weary.
Soldiers lie in quiet beds, one missing an arm, comforted by family members. Anesthetist Sar Chanraksmey, fighting back tears, scrolls through gruesome photos of blast injuries on his phone. “My heart aches,” he pleads. “Please tell the world we just want peace.”
This second major flare-up in less than six months has proven more destructive and protracted than the five-day war in July. Fighting has erupted along the 800km border, with intense battles over strategic forested hilltops. Each side is inflicting pain with distinct military advantages.
Why are Thailand and Cambodia fighting?
The conflict’s core remains unresolved territorial and historical disputes. In this round, Thailand has leveraged its air superiority, launching extensive bombing raids inside Cambodia, which has limited air defenses.
In response, Cambodia has unleashed volleys of its feared but notoriously inaccurate BM21 rockets, striking across the border. Despite Thai evacuations, these attacks have killed at least one civilian and injured others, spreading the war’s suffering beyond the frontline.
The hospital scenes capture just one facet of the mounting toll—human, economic, and social—as both nations continue to pay a steep price for the unresolved tensions along their shared frontier.
By James Kisoo
