A refugee camp is a space created in emergency, in an environment in construction, where the people are managed by humanitarian agencies. A socio-spatial system is created, which exists not only by an appropriation of the space by refugees but also by the appearance of identity-based categories linked to the implementation of this space. Setting up the infrastructures needed by humanitarians to manage the camp is a way to organize the space according to social groups. It allows also a categorization of the population. This territorial labelling of humanitarian agencies through space but also through identities, put at issue the apparition of a new form of power, particular to this kind of space, called "bio-politics" according to M. Foucault terminology, specific to humanitarian contingencies. The results of a fieldwork realized in the camp of Nkondo established for Angolan refugees in D.R.C. (Democratic Republic of Congo) will illustrate our point.

Angola Humanitarian space Identity-based category Refugees Camps Democratic Republic of Congo

Angola Africa refugee Sub-Saharan Africa identity construction Democratic Republic Congo Central Africa territory Southern Africa humanitarian aid