Thailand has urged its citizens to leave Cambodia or reconsider travel as border clashes look set to stretch into a sixth day and casualties mount on both sides.

Thais who do not need to stay in Cambodia should consider leaving and those who don’t need to travel there should refrain from doing so until the situation resolves, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an advisory.

Thai authorities are also preparing to receive citizens currently held across the border awaiting Cambodia’s immigration process to return home, defense spokesman Surasant Kongsiri said during a briefing late Thursday afternoon.

Earlier this week, countries including the United Kingdom and Canada also advised their citizens against traveling to the affected Thailand-Cambodia border areas.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will speak with Thai and Cambodian prime ministers and urge them to uphold a peace deal he helped to broker.

“They’ve been fighting for a very long time, many, many, many decades,” Trump said Wednesday in the U.S. “But I got along great with both. I found they were two great leaders, two great people, and I settled it once. I think I can do it pretty quickly. I think, I think I can get them to stop fighting. Who else can do that? Think of it.”

Since Sunday, the two nations have been exchanging fire along their disputed frontier, and each has accused the other of provoking the escalation. Thailand is also conducting air strikes using fighter jets, an advantage Cambodia doesn’t possess. More than 400,000 Thai citizens have been evacuated from seven border provinces and relocated to shelters and over 700 schools are closed.

The flare-up marks the most serious fighting since July and puts pressure on Trump’s peace deal. The escalation has raised fears the long-disputed border feud could spiral into a wider and more prolonged conflict if neither side pulls back.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Manet are both leaning into strong nationalist sentiment at home. It’s a stance that could benefit Anutin politically as Thailand heads into an election early next year.

Economically, however, Thailand has far more at stake. If Trump again makes a ceasefire a condition for moving forward on tariff negotiations, as he did earlier this year to halt fighting, Thailand risks losing leverage in talks that are critical for its export-driven economy.

Thai authorities also Thursday reported nine soldiers have been killed, while dozens of others have been injured after five straight days of attacks. Four civilians have died due to health reasons during the course of the fighting, while some 19 hospitals have been affected by shelling.

Cambodian officials said 10 civilians perished, including one infant, and around 60 have been hurt. It didn’t disclose any military casualties.

Cambodia has asked the United Nations Security Council to intervene in the conflict, saying the attacks pose a clear and present danger to regional peace and security. In a Dec. 10 letter, Cambodia accused Thai forces of days of heavy shelling, drone and air strikes, and “the most blatant disregard of civilian lives.”

Cambodia’s defense ministry on Thursday alleged the Thai army committed countless violations of international law, including the use of F-16 fighter jets and toxic gas, bombing of civilian areas and destruction of historical sites along the border.

The Thai armed forces have repeatedly denied these claims, saying its actions were in self defense in response to Cambodian attacks and they’ve only targeted military sites to eliminate imminent threats. Thailand in turn has accused Cambodia of indiscriminately launching rockets into civilian areas on the Thai side and using historical sites along the border for military purposes.

----------

—With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron and Philip J. Heijmans.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.