Phnom penh: Cambodia closed all its border crossings with Thailand until further notice on Saturday as hostilities continued along the frontier.
According to Deutsche Welle, the move comes as border clashes between the Southeast Asian nations have continued, despite US President Donald Trump saying Friday that they had agreed to a ceasefire. "The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to fully suspend all entry and exit movements at all Cambodia-Thailand border crossings, effective immediately and until further notice," the Cambodian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that his country would keep up military strikes on Cambodia until it no longer felt under threat from its neighbor, telling local media there was no ceasefire in place. Anutin wrote on Facebook that Thailand would "continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people," after telling reporters it was Cambodia that should first stop its attacks. "I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning already spoke," he said.
Thai newspaper Khaosod cited Anutin as saying "there are no ceasefire negotiations, and it is not yet the time for that." At the same time, the paper reported Anutin as saying "there is a lot of communication going on."
The recent cross-border clashes, which come after a long-running territorial dispute reignited this year, have displaced more than 500,000 people and killed more than 20 people, including several civilians, with hundreds more wounded, officials say. Anutin's statements come a day after Trump said that both countries had agreed to stop fighting, following days of clashes along their shared 800-kilometer (nearly 550-mile) border. Trump has been mediating the conflict.
Thailand says four more of its soldiers were killed on Saturday in renewed clashes at the border, with the Defense Ministry saying the fatalities brought the death toll among Thai troops to 14 since fighting erupted on Monday. Cambodia's Defense Ministry also said in a post on Facebook that "Thai forces have not stopped the bombing and are still continuing the bombing."