180,000 Evacuees Crowd New Sa Kaeo Shelters Amid Border Strife

It has been a bruising week for communities hugging Thailand’s eastern frontier. As Thai and Cambodian troops trade artillery and drone strikes, more than 180,000 residents have left their villages, five shelters have sprung up almost overnight and the once-bustling Aranyaprathet–Poipet trade corridor has fallen silent. The fighting shows no sign of slowing, but so far Thai commanders insist their positions are holding and civilian casualties remain low.

At a glance

• 180,683 people evacuated from 4 Sa Kaeo border districts since 8 Dec

• 5 temporary shelters now host 18,000+ displaced villagers

• Thai troops report 2 dead, 34 wounded; additional 6,000 Thai nationals stuck across the line at Poipet

• Curfew 19:00-05:00 remains in force inside the conflict zone

• Royal kitchen, Red Cross, field hospital deployed to sustain evacuees

Clashes creep westward along a 165-km frontier

The skirmishes kicked off on 8 Dec when Cambodian units pushed artillery and multiple-rocket launchers into disputed pockets near Ban Nong Ya Kaew. The Thai Burapha Task Force responded with F-16 air strikes, armour and infantry sweeps designed to re-establish sovereignty lines that had blurred in recent months. In Khok Sung district, Special Task Force 12 located and neutralised a nest of PMN-2 anti-personnel mines plus improvised charges built around RPG-2, 60 mm mortar and 82 mm recoilless rounds. Several mine-clearing robots have since been moved into the paddy dykes to speed up de-mining before villagers can return.

Sa Kaeo’s race to protect civilians

Provincial officials ordered a full-scale evacuation once BM-21 salvos began landing near schools. By 9 Dec roughly 83 % of the local population had been moved to safer ground. The shelters—spread across Mueang Sa Kaeo, Khok Sung, Wang Nam Yen, Khao Chakan and Watthana Nakhon—can collectively house 25,000 people, though space is already tight. Municipal buses, private pickups and even farm tractors ferried families out under the rumble of artillery. Local teachers and district clerks have taken on the tedious task of ID checks and welfare registration.

Royal kitchen and an army of volunteers

Inside the main compound at Ban Kaeng, a royal kitchen turns out nearly 10,000 hot meals daily. Funding comes from the Royal Household Bureau, ingredients from village co-ops and cooking muscle from college ROTC cadets who happened to be on semester break. The Thai Red Cross, civil-society groups and dozens of Bangkok-based charities have sent truckloads of diapers, sanitary pads and bottled water. Health volunteers operate pop-up clinics while military chaplains run evening story-telling circles to keep children occupied.

Economic heartbeat flatlines

Border commerce once worth ฿65 B per year is effectively frozen. The normally congested Aranyaprathet–Poipet crossing now sees only the occasional refrigerated truck allowed through on humanitarian grounds. Thai traders complain that Cambodian officials are demanding “exit fees” of up to $100 a head before releasing Thai workers trapped in casino dormitories. Customs brokers warn that warehouse inventories of fresh fruit could spoil within days if the stalemate drags on, dealing another blow to the province’s already fragile post-pandemic recovery.

Curfew, checkpoints and a shrinking free-fire zone

The First Army has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew (19:00–05:00) across four districts and set up 52 roadblocks to keep civilians from wandering into stray-shell territory. Field commanders insist the rules of engagement remain strictly defensive, yet residents report hearing Gripen rumble overhead nightly. Military engineers have erected new concertina-wire fences south of Khlong Phaeng where Thai tanks flattened a Cambodian-side casino that, according to intelligence briefs, doubled as a logistics hub and FPV-drone launch pad.

Casino strongholds in Phnom Pénh’s shadow

For years, half-finished casinos just beyond the border have been tied to cross-border scam syndicates. Thai analysts now believe those same complexes are being re-purposed as fire-bases, complete with underground ammo bunkers and satellite uplinks. After last week’s tank barrage, drone footage showed the Khlong Phaeng casino complex reduced to smoking rubble. Cambodian media dismissed the site as a “civilian business,” but leaked Thai surveillance intercepts point to BM-21 launch grids mapped on its rooftop.

Health system bends but holds

Twelve rural clinics near the frontier have closed; their 634 in-patients were shifted inland by ambulance convoys flanked by police pickups. A 100-bed field hospital at Sa Kaeo Sports Stadium handles trauma cases and offers tele-psychiatry for evacuees showing acute stress. The Public Health Ministry says its mental-health teams have screened 27,000 refugees, flagging 388 for heightened suicide risk—a figure doctors call “manageable” if funding continues.

Outlook: diplomacy or drawn-out grind?

Defence officials claim momentum is on Thailand’s side, yet concede that fully sealing the border could take weeks. Foreign-policy circles in Bangkok whisper about possible mediation by ASEAN’s rotating chair, but no formal proposals have surfaced. Until then, the 165 km line dividing Sa Kaeo and Banteay Meanchey remains a patchwork of sandbags, mine-tape and uncertainty.

Key insight

If the fighting drags beyond the new year, officials fear a second migration wave could spill past Sa Kaeo into Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao, testing emergency budgets—and public patience—well beyond the borderlands.