LOWELL — Local elected officials from Cambodia are welcoming a new ceasefire between their home country and neighboring Thailand, but they expressed a need for a lasting peace after one collapsed ceasefire led to weeks of deadly clashes along the disputed border between the two countries.

The southeast Asian nations signed an agreement Saturday to end the fighting for the second time this year. The two countries’ militaries clashed in July after a Cambodian soldier was fatally shot by Thai troops in a disputed area of the border. Tensions simmered for weeks until July 23 when multiple Thai soldiers were injured by a landmine in another disputed border area.

That round of fighting lasted for five days until Cambodia and Thailand signed a ceasefire agreement brokered by Malaysia under pressure from President Donald Trump.

For months after, both Cambodia and Thailand engaged in a continued propaganda war with bouts of minor cross-border violence until the fighting once again escalated in early December.

In Greater Lowell, which has the second-largest population of Cambodian-Americans in the country, elected officials began to weigh in and express support for an end to the fighting after hundreds of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border were displaced.

On Dec. 20 hundreds of people gathered at Lowell City Hall for a rally to end the violence unfolding on the other side of the world. At the rally a petition was signed by attendees calling for international action the end the war, for a third-party to serve as a monitor in a demilitarized border region and for the U.S. to halt military assistance to the Thai army. The following day Lowell City Councilor Sokhary Chau co-organized a candlelight vigil led by local Buddhist temples calling for an end to the conflict. Chau had arrived in the U.S. decades ago, after fleeing the Khmer Rouge government and the Cambodian genocide in 1979.

After the ceasefire was signed over the weekend, Chau said he welcomed the news.

“It gives us hope, but hope alone is not enough. Cambodian people need lasting peace, not temporary silence. We have heard ceasefires before, and we know what happens when they fail,” said Chau in a message to The Sun. “As someone from Battambang, one of the provinces affected, and as a representative of Lowell, the recent attacks were deeply triggering. Many in our community are refugees of war. We understand the fear of displacement, the pain of loss, and the trauma that lingers long after the fighting stops.”

Chau urged the U.S. government and United Nations to continue to exert their influence to ensure the ceasefire holds “so civilians are protected and families are not forced to flee again.” He thanked the Buddhist monks who supported the vigil, and the Cambodian diaspora in Greater Lowell.

“When we unite through civic engagement, we can achieve great goals, and we must continue the good fight to ensure enduring peace in the region,” said Chau. “Those of us who have lived through war know this truth: peace is not optional, it is a necessity.”

Also welcoming the ceasefire was 18th Middlesex District state Rep. Tara Hong, who arrived in the U.S. from Cambodia in 2013 as a teenager.

“I’m really glad to see a ceasefire agreement between the two countries, allowing civilians living near the border on the Cambodian side to return home safely and begin returning to their normal lives,” said Hong on Monday. “I urge the Thai government to uphold this agreement and respect international law, so that Cambodians, both at home and around the world, can live without fear of war.”

State Rep. Vanna Howard, who also came to the U.S. from Cambodia as a child to flee the Khmer Rouge, said she hopes the renewed ceasefire will lead to a longer term peace in the region.

“This agreement is the second signed ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, intended to halt hostilities that recommenced in early December following the collapse of a prior agreement established in October,” said Howard. “I sincerely hope that this new accord will provide immediate relief to affected civilians and border communities, while simultaneously paving the way for a lasting peace for the people of Cambodia that is long overdue.”

The defense ministers of both countries met at a border checkpoint to sign the ceasefire agreement, which took effect at noon Saturday and declared both sides to be committed to upholding the original agreement they signed in July. From Dec. 7 to the start of the ceasefire Saturday Thailand reported that 26 of its soldiers and one civilian were killed as a direct result of the fighting. Thailand has also reported at least 44 civilian deaths from indirect effects of the conflict.

Cambodia has not issued any official figures on military casualties sustained in that three weeks of fighting, but said 30 civilians were killed and 90 were injured.

The new agreement between the two nations calls for a halt to all military movements and airspace violations. If the ceasefire holds for at least 72 hours, Thailand also must return 18 Cambodian soldiers it had taken prisoner in July.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.