(30 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Phrong village, Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia – 30 July 2025
1. Wide of man standing beside damaged building
2. Various of damaged interior
3. 63-year-old Soth Sim, the owner, walks through ruins of home saying UPSOUND (Khmer): “Everything has been burned to ashes. The motorcycles, the laundry and the furniture were all on fire. The motorcycles.”
4. Wide of burned motocycles
5. Wide of debris on floor
6. Close of door handle leading into bedroom
7. Various of damage inside bedroom
8. Wide of destroyed table and chairs with burned Buddha’s head on table
9. Mid of burned Buddha’s head
10. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Soth Sim, owner of destroyed property:
“The moment I saw the photo of our damaged house, I was so shocked because all of our belongings, all the property that we have been earning and working for, our whole life, in a moment, is gone.”
11. Exterior of property
12. Broken glass
13. Wide of smashed window
14. Wide of table and chairs
15. Wide of Soth Sim looking at damage
16. Wide of destroyed interior
17. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Soth Sim, owner of destroyed property:
“What I said is beyond sad. I don’t know how else to say it. But I have something to ask the United Nations, as well as other leaders and organizations that have power: please help end the fighting."
18. Various of damage
STORYLINE:
As people on both sides of the Thailand-Cambodia border begin to venture home, some are discovering the personal price they have paid during recent fierce fighting.
In Cambodia’s Phrong village, Oddar Meanchey province, 63-year-old Soth Sim has been combing through what’s left of his home and business, and wondering what he can salvage.
He and his family of eight fled to a displacement camp when the firing began last Thursday.
After the leaders of the two countries agreed a ceasefire deal on Monday, he came back home and found ruin.
The house has been gutted by fire, the furniture and fittings burned to a cinder. Shrapnel holes pepper the walls.
The petrol station he owned, beside his house, has also been extensively damaged.
He knew it was bad because while he was at the camp he saw a photo. But it didn’t prepare him for the reality.
“The moment I saw the photo of our damaged house, I was so shocked because all of our belongings, all the property that we have been earning and working for, our whole life, in a moment, is gone,” he said.
The fighting between the Cambodian and Thai militaries began almost a week ago. It followed months of rising tension over possession of small pockets of land along their 800-km land border.
So far it’s killed at least 41 people and displaced over 260,000 others. No one’s yet put a figure on the economic loss.
Soth Sim thinks it’s cost him around $100,000 and he wonders how he’ll ever cope.
Both sides blame the other for being the first to fire.
The ceasefire deal appears to be holding, though tension and mistrust remain high.
More evacuees are expected to return in the coming days to homes they can only hope have been spared destruction.
AP video shot by Anton L. Delgado
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