Formal peace talks between the Thai government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) will resume in June 2026. This comes despite a recent spike in violence in the far South, which the insurgents are using to demand deeper political discussions to address their demands for “self-government”.

The incoming government of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is finding out very quickly that conflict resolution for the Deep South is not so straightforward and that his quick-fix approach will not achieve the intended results given the complexity of the Deep South.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, after chairing a security meeting in Songkhla on 17 February 2026, could not get his head around the fact that each year around Ramadan, separatist militants in the far South would step up their attacks in this historically contested region. His tough stance against Cambodia and his talk of building a wall along the Thailand-Cambodia border won him the 2026 general election. But the far South is different.

In one of his first moves as newly appointed Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul has named a new chief negotiator for the peace process in Thailand's far South, a region gripped by a conflict that has claimed over 7,700 lives since 2004. The decision has been met with scepticism, however, as Anutin’s government is set to serve only four months before Parliament is dissolved. Since the negotiating team is mandated by the Cabinet, any new government will be free to appoint its own officials.

There was a real fear that the insurgency in Thailand’s southernmost border provinces would relive its bloody past where tit-for-tat violence by government forces and rebel combatants turned the conflict into a bloodbath marked by heavy-handed responses and vigilantism. But the second spike of violence came immediately after the shooting death of a very senior member of the National Revolutionary Front of Patani Malay/Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), Abdulroning Lateh, 60, on 18 April.

The Move Forward Party (MFP)-led coalition’s team working on peace has discussed approaches to resolving the southern insurgency, aiming to achieve peace within four years through negotiations in accordance with the constitution which emphasizes Thailand as a unitary state.

<div> <div>Personal information about foreigners living in southern Thailand was leaked on a website with the logo of the Thai Immigration Bureau. The website was taken down after Thai media reported it.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thai Netizen Network reported on Sunday, 28 March 2016, that they found a website which revealed the name, visa status, passport number and address of foreigners living in southern Thailand. </div></div>