April 1975 was a cruel month for millions of Cambodians. Forty-nine years ago, on April 17, the Khmer Rouge finally captured Phnom Penh after a five-year civil war with the US-backed Lon Nol regime.
One million residents and another million refugees in the capital city initially felt a sense of jubilation that the war was finally over.
The Khmer Rouge had other ideas that didn’t include celebrating. They forcefully evacuated the city, a process that resulted in thousands of deaths, especially among the elderly and infirm, who walking in the blistering heat of April died along roadsides heading away from Phnom Penh.
In full: https://asiatimes.com/2024/04/remembering-cambodias-genocide-in-a-corner-of-africa/
