A representative of the 175 Land Community, Phav Nheung, tells her fellow community members about the outcome of the meeting with the Koh Kong provincial governor regarding their petition and the request for social land outside Koh Kong provincial hall today. Photo from the Koh Kong community members.

This morning, around 100 people from four land communities in two districts of Koh Kong province gathered in front of the Koh Kong provincial hall to demand a resolution to their ongoing land conflict and to request the provision of social land to the poor and displaced families in their communities who still await intervention. At the same time, around 60 affected villagers from Kratie’s Ou Krieng Saenchey district gathered in Phnom Penh seeking an intervention in their own land conflict.

The four land communities in Koh Kong include the 197 Land Community, the 955 Land Community, the 175 Land Community (otherwise known as the “Chi Kha Kroam” Land Community), and the Thma Sar Sameakki Land Community. Together, they assembled in the rain in front of the provincial hall to wave banners, calling for a faster resolution to their land conflict and demanding that the authorities receive their follow-up petition. Their follow-up petition includes 856 families from six communes in Srae Ambel and Botum Sakor districts requesting social land concessions. Today’s gathering came after a lack of response to their petitions at the district and provincial levels as well as at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction in Phnom Penh in March and May 2026.

The 197 Land Community, consisting of 197 families, has been involved in a long-running land dispute with Oknha Heng Huy since 2007. In addition, 16 families from the same community became involved in another land conflict with well-connected private individuals in 2023. Meanwhile, the around 60 families of Thma Sar Sameakki Land Community have occupied land in Botum Sakor district since 2006 and began experiencing their land conflict in 2020 when their land and crops were cleared by authorities stating that their land was located in the Botum Sakor National Park. This came after the former Koh Kong provincial governor notified residents in May 2023 that the land they occupied was offered as an ELC to Royal Group, owned by Oknha Kith Meng, in 2021 and therefore any villager who lived on the land did so illegally.

In a separate gathering in Phnom Penh, affected villagers, including around 60 people from Kratie’s Ou Krieng Saen Chey, marched from the Islam Temple in Boeng Kak commune to the National Assembly to seek intervention in their land dispute with the Great Wonder Agriculture Development, a company that received an economic land concession (ELC) from the government in 2006. The ELC affected around 300 families in Toung village, Roluos Mean Chey commune, Ou Krieng Saen Chey district, according to the testimony of a local villager. The group was quickly blocked by Daun Penh security guards and authorities, leaving only 10 people able to continue their petition for intervention at the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, travelling via tuk tuk. Following the meeting with a cabinet official, the petitioners told the media that an official threatened them and claimed the residents were living there illegally. The official stated that the Great Wonder Agricultural Development was granted the ELC in 2006, whereas the citizens only settled there in 2017. This morning’s gathering emerged following an order by Kratie Provincial Administration dated 8 July 2026 for all affected villagers to leave their settlements, crops, and construction sites on land that the government conceded to Great Wonder by 14 August 2026.