“I Thought Peace Had Finally Come”: An Elderly Cambodian Woman Forced to Flee Once Again

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (Dec. 19, 2025) — Beneath a flimsy tarpaulin at a crowded displacement camp in Chong Kal district, an elderly Cambodian woman sits quietly, her face lined with decades of survival. Nearing 80, she thought her final years would be lived in peace. Instead, renewed fighting along the Cambodia–Thailand border has forced her to flee once more.

“This is the second time I have had to run,” she said, her voice trembling. “I thought those days were over.”

She remembers losing her husband during the Khmer Rouge era, raising children alone, and watching Cambodia rebuild roads, schools and homes from the rubble of war. Now, she says, those hard-won gains are being destroyed again.

“I brought nothing with me,” she said. “People told me to flee. I was afraid shells would fall on my house.”

Her disabled daughter sits beside her, while her son-in-law serves as a soldier on the frontlines. She insists ordinary Cambodians want no conflict. “We live peacefully. Our soldiers did nothing to harm Thailand. But Thai troops came and attacked us.”

According to Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence, Thai forces have violated ceasefire agreements with artillery, airstrikes and incursions into provinces including Preah Vihear and Banteay Meanchey. Since Dec. 7, the violence has killed 18 civilians, injured 79 and displaced more than 476,000 people.

For survivors like her, the war is not about borders or diplomacy, but about fear, loss and the shattering of hopes for lasting peace.

“I thought I would never have to run again,” she said softly. “But peace did not last.”