Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday agreed to a new ceasefire to halt weeks of fierce border clashes, easing the worst fighting in years between the two Southeast Asian neighbours and raising cautious hopes that a spiralling conflict can be contained.

The truce, which took effect at noon local time, appeared to be holding in its early hours. Thai Defence Ministry spokesperson Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said there had been no immediate reports of gunfire about two hours after the ceasefire began. Cambodian authorities likewise reported no new clashes after alleging a Thai airstrike early on Saturday, shortly before the ceasefire was announced.

The agreement was signed by Thai Defence Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit and his Cambodian counterpart, Tea Seiha, ending nearly 20 days of intense fighting that has killed at least 101 people and forced more than half a million civilians on both sides of the border to flee their homes. The violence marked the most serious escalation in years, featuring fighter jet sorties, exchanges of rocket fire and sustained artillery barrages along multiple stretches of the frontier.

In a joint statement, the two defence ministers said both sides had agreed to maintain their current troop deployments without any further movement, warning that reinforcements would only heighten tensions and undermine longer-term efforts to resolve the dispute. Cambodia released the statement on social media, underlining a shared commitment to prevent further escalation.

The latest ceasefire follows the collapse earlier this month of a previous truce brokered with the help of United States President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. That earlier agreement had halted a round of fighting in July, but mutual accusations of violations and troop movements soon reignited hostilities, plunging border communities back into violence.

Saturday’s agreement also sets out a framework for monitoring and communication. Natthaphon said the ceasefire would be overseen by an observer team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), alongside direct coordination between Thai and Cambodian forces on the ground. At the policy level, he added, there would be direct communication between the defence ministers and the chiefs of the armed forces of both countries to address incidents swiftly and prevent misunderstandings.

Diplomatic efforts are set to intensify in the coming days. Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and his Thai counterpart, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, are scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in China’s Yunnan province on Sunday and Monday to discuss the border situation. China has long maintained close ties with both countries and has sought to play a quiet role in easing regional tensions.

The roots of the conflict stretch back more than a century. Thailand and Cambodia share an 817-kilometre land border, parts of which remain undemarcated, and competing claims over sovereignty at several points have periodically erupted into skirmishes. While most incidents have been localised and short-lived, the latest clashes spread across a wider area and involved heavier weaponry, raising alarm across the region.

Tensions peaked in July, when the two sides fought for five days along sections of the frontier, leaving at least 48 people dead and displacing some 300,000 residents before outside mediation produced a truce. That ceasefire unravelled in early December as fighting spread from forested regions near Laos to coastal provinces along the Gulf of Thailand, underscoring how quickly local disputes can escalate.

The renewed ceasefire was reached after a flurry of regional diplomacy. ASEAN foreign ministers held a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur earlier in the week, followed by three days of talks between Thai and Cambodian representatives at a border checkpoint. Those discussions culminated in the face-to-face meeting between the two defence ministers on Saturday, paving the way for the agreement.

Beyond halting the fighting, the pact includes humanitarian measures aimed at easing the suffering of civilians caught in the conflict. Both sides agreed on the return of displaced people to affected border areas and stressed that no force would be used against civilians. Thailand also committed to returning 18 Cambodian soldiers who have been in its custody since the July clashes, provided the ceasefire is fully maintained for 72 hours.

However, the agreement leaves some of the most sensitive issues unresolved. It does not affect ongoing border demarcation activities, meaning that long-standing disputes over specific areas will continue to be handled through existing bilateral mechanisms. Analysts say this underscores the fragility of the truce, as the underlying causes of the conflict remain in place.

Thai military leaders sought to strike a conciliatory tone. “War and clashes don’t make the two countries or the two people happy,” Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornjaidee told reporters, stressing that ordinary Thais and Cambodians were not enemies. His remarks echoed a broader message from both governments that the conflict is a political and military dispute, not a clash between peoples.

Calm along the border offers a measure of relief to communities battered by weeks of shelling and displacement. Whether the ceasefire can hold — and whether it can lead to a more durable settlement — will depend on sustained restraint, effective monitoring and continued diplomatic engagement in a region where historical grievances have too often flared into violence.

The Syrian presidency says it will deploy a new force to halt the deadly sectarian clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters in the south of the country.

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s office urged “all parties to exercise restraint”, amid reports of renewed fighting near the city of Suweida on Friday.

Almost 600 people are reported to have been killed since the violence erupted on Sunday. Government troops deployed to the area were accused by residents of killing Druze civilians and carrying out extrajudicial executions.

Israel later struck targets in Syria to force the troops to withdraw from Suweida province. On Friday, the US ambassador to Turkey said that Israel and Syria had agreed a ceasefire.

In a post on X, ambassador Tom Barrack said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sharaa “have agreed to a ceasefire” embraced by Syria’s neighbours Turkey and Jordan.

“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity in peace and prosperity with its neighbours,” the envoy said.

Israel and Syria have not publicly commented on the reported ceasefire agreement.

Shortly before Sharaa’s office announced its planned military deployment to the south, an Israeli official said Israel had agreed to allow the limited entry of Syrian Internal Security Forces personnel into Suweida for 48 hours to protect Druze civilians “in light of the ongoing instability”.

Suweida’s predominantly Druze community follows a secretive, unique faith derived from Shia Islam, and distrusts the current jihadist-led government in Damascus.

The BBC correspondent in the Syrian capital says that sectarian hatred of the Druze is now spreading across the country.

The Druze are a minority in Syria, as well as in neighbouring Lebanon and Israel.

Earlier this week, the UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said his office had received credible reports indicating widespread violations and abuses, including summary executions and arbitrary killings in Suweida.

Among the alleged perpetrators were members of the security forces and individuals affiliated with the interim government, as well as local Druze and Bedouin armed elements, Türk said in a statement.

“This bloodshed and the violence must stop,” he warned, adding that “those responsible must be held to account”.

The BBC has contacted the Syrian government and security forces about allegations of summary killings and other violations.

In a televised address early on Thursday, Sharaa vowed to hold the perpetrators accountable and promised to make protecting the Druze a “priority”.

“We are eager to hold accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people because they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,” he said.

He went on to blame “outlaw groups”, saying their leaders “rejected dialogue for many months”.

Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the UN chief, said in a statement that António Guterres is “deeply alarmed” by the continued escalation across the region.

“All acts of escalation are condemnable and must stop,” the statement read.

The Secretary-General reiterated his urgent appeal to all parties to cease all military actions, including in Gaza and Lebanon, and to exert maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war.

He also called for a return to diplomacy.

According to media reports, explosions were heard in and near the Iranian capital, Tehran, at around 2:15 AM local time, followed by an announcement by the IDF that it had carried out strikes on military targets in the country.

The strikes reportedly ended about four hours later. The Iranian military said four of its soldiers were killed in the strikes overnight.

“Children in Burundi are bearing the brunt of the mpox outbreak with alarming rates of infection and health impacts,” said Dr Paul Ngwakum, UNICEF Regional Health Advisor for Eastern and Southern Africa. “Of the nearly 600 reported cases, two-thirds are children under 19 years old and the situation is escalating really rapidly with more than [a] 40 per cent  increase in cases over the last three weeks.”

To date in Burundi there have been more than 14,000 suspected cases but no reported deaths from mpox. Neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, however, has seen nearly 21,900 suspected cases and 717 deaths.

The UNICEF official insisted that with funding and prompt action in Burundi, “we have an opportunity to end this outbreak in a very short time period because the geographical area is kind of limited and with concerted effort from all partners, I think, we can limit the spread; we can contain the virus so we can stop the outbreak without any loss of life”.

Making classrooms safe 

Following the start of the school year earlier this week in Burundi, the UN agency remains concerned about the rise of mpox among children under five years of age, who represent 30 per cent of reported cases – as in DRC. To help teachers and parents understand the risks and minimize disruption, the UN agency has supported the education authorities to implement health measures in schools, train staff to recognize early symptoms of mpox and reinforce hand hygiene.

“Make no mistake, we don’t have all the answers. No one does. This is a rapidly evolving situation, with a new, infectious strain, and we are learning more every day about different modes of transmission. And with more information, we update our messaging and our response,” said Dr Ngwakum.

The UNICEF appeal will also provide mental health support for parents and frontline workers who may face hostility from some communities in part because of the association of mpox with sex, which is responsible for some transmission – but by no means all of it.

Harmful stigma

“Sex in Africa is not something that is spoken of on a daily basis. And if they think you are having a sexually transmitted disease, it stigmatizes you as well,” explained Dr Ngwakum. “We try to explain that this is not the case. Most children have it from body-to-body contact or contact with animals or contact with infected materials, which is not having anything to do with human-to-human sexual contamination.”

Communities also remain fearful of a repeat of previous serious health outbreaks such as Ebola or COVID-19, “so there is an important role we are playing to dispel myths, and calm fears”, the UNICEF official explained.

Highlighting the stark contrast between the high number of suspected deaths from mpox in DRC and Burundi, Dr Margaret Harris from the UN World Health Organization (WHO) explained that this was likely owing to the longstanding humanitarian emergency in eastern DRC.

“Many of the children whom we’ve seen horribly, sadly die in the Democratic Republic of Congo were very immuno-suppressed through being severely malnourished and having suffered the effects of conflict and perhaps also having other diseases at the same time,” she told journalists in Geneva.

 

Mr. Guterres’s intervention late Wednesday comes amid one of the biggest Israeli Security Forces (ISF) operations in the West Bank in years – the ISF insists against terrorists – with raids, airstrikes including drones that by Thursday had killed 17 people, according to Palestinian media.

In a statement, the spokesperson for the UN chief said that he was deeply concerned by airstrikes in Tulkarm and Tubas governorates which caused casualties and damage to public infrastructure. The UN Secretary-General also strongly condemned the loss of lives, including children’s.

Palestinian authority undermined

In his appeal for an end to the violence in the West Bank, the Secretary-General maintained that the latest “dangerous developments” were “fuelling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority” there.

The UN chief also called for the “status quo” to be maintained at Jerusalem’s holy sites, as he expressed deep concern about the “recent dangerous and provocative acts and statements” by Israel’s national security minister, after his recent visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is known to Jews as Temple Mount.

The Israeli military should also comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, Mr. Guterres insisted, as he urged Israel “to protect civilians and ensure their safety [and] to exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable”. In addition, all those injured in the Israeli manoeuvres “must have access to medical care”, while aid teams must be able to reach everyone in need, he said.

Security Council to gather

The UN chief’s comments precede a hastily convened Security Council meeting on the escalating crisis in New York later on Thursday, at the request of the United Kingdom. The Members of the UN’s top forum – whose purpose is the maintenance of international peace and security – are set to gather against the destabilizing backdrop of rising tensions and heavy exchanges of fire between northern Israel and Hezbollah fighters based in southern Lebanon – in addition to the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation” – citing multiple airstrikes in the Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem on Monday night that left five dead – three Palestinian men and two boys aged 13 and 15.

Settler violence in spotlight

“Three of the fatalities, including the two boys, were killed while they were passing by the targeted house…located in one of the small and crammed alleyways in the camp,” OHCHR said, citing multiple sources.

The UN office warned that the situation in the Occupied West Bank “could worsen dramatically” if the Israeli military continues to “systematically use unlawful lethal force and ignore violence perpetrated by settlers”.