95

War – with its bloodshed – tends to accentuate ethnic distinctions. We see the development of two situations: regrouping of population in military enclaves or refugee camps on the one hand, and exodus abroad or, at the very least, outside the native lands on the other. Case studies carried out in the Sudan and Somalia illustrate these responses to war. In the Sudan, an authoritarian regime attempted to divide and conquer in order to crush the Southern rebellion, by stimulating internal dissensions among the guerrilla forces. In Somalia, the government’s collapse led to the intervention of humanitarian agencies. Whereas tribal identities used to be defined with great precision, the procedures for attributing refugee status have tended to encourage refugees to claim links with clans among the “vulnerable minorities”.