Cambodia-Thailand Border Conflict and Risk Education
19 December, 2025
Cambodian Self Help Demining personnel hold an explosive ordnance risk education session for refugees fleeing Thai military strikes in northern Cambodia. Source: Cambodian Self Help Demining on Facebook
In northern Cambodia 400,000 people have been displaced by Thai military strikes.
From our colleagues there:
“Refugee centers have sprung up all over northern Cambodia. Some are official; some are not. For those who had the means to reach Siem Reap and other town centers, those places are available. Many poor farmers are going wherever they can and living in the back of their tractors in a cart on the side of the road. One becomes two, becomes four, and soon you have an ad hoc refugee camp.”
The conflict has disrupted the work of Cambodian Self Help Demining’s (CSHD) Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) Team, funded by Canadians via the Canadian Landmine Foundation.
“The government has asked us, and the other demining NGOs, to step up our EORE classes with those people who have been evacuated. IF and when people return home, the threat of unexploded ordnance is going to be huge.”
This appeal comes at the same time as a funding crisis. Since U.S. funding ended at the start of 2025, the Risk Education Team has remained operational—barely. Earlier this month, CSHD was forced to transfer funds from demining to risk education in order to keep the EORE team in funded:
“I am using reserve funds allocated for demining, along with any money we can raise, to keep them in the field. The use of cluster munitions, heavy artillery, and 500-pound bombs means that when the villagers can return home, they will have to deal with a lot of UXOs. They need to know what awaits them, and that’s the team’s job.”
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