Cambodian humanitarian crisis

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The Cambodian humanitarian crisis from 1969 to 1993 consisted of a series of related events which resulted in the death, displacement, or resettlement abroad of millions of Cambodians.

The crisis had several phases. First was the Cambodian Civil War between the Lon Nol government and the Khmer Rouge from 1970 to 1975. This phase was also marked by intensive United States bombing from 1969 to 1973 of the Khmer Rouge and sanctuaries and bases inside Cambodia of the North Vietnamese Army as part of its strategy to win the Vietnam War. The second phase was the rule of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge murdered or starved about one-fourth of the 8 million population in the Cambodian genocide.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. Vietnam and the Cambodian government it created ruled the country for the next 12 years. The Khmer Rouge and other groups fought a guerrilla war against the Vietnamese occupiers and the Cambodian government. In 1979 and 1980, the chaos caused hundreds of thousands of Cambodians to rush to the border with Thailand to escape the violence and to avoid the famine which threatened Cambodia. Humanitarian organizations coped with the crisis with the "land bridge", one of the largest humanitarian aid efforts ever undertaken.

From 1981 to 1991, the guerrilla war against the Vietnamese and Cambodian government continued and hundreds of thousands of Cambodians continued to reside in refugee camps in Thailand or on the border with Thailand. About 260,000 of the refugees were resettled abroad, more than one-half of them in the United States. The final phase of the Cambodian humanitarian crisis was its resolution in 1991–1993. Vietnam withdrew from the country and the United Nations led Cambodia toward an elected government and repatriated 360,000 Cambodians, emptying and closing the refugee camps.