18. The Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979)
Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, led by Pol Pot, orchestrated a genocide resulting in the deaths of approximately 1.7 to 2 million people, nearly a quarter of the country’s population at the time. The regime’s radical policies aimed to transform Cambodia into an agrarian socialist society, leading to mass executions, forced labor, starvation, and disease. The brutality and scale of this genocide remain among the most horrific in modern history (hmd.org.uk).
