People of south-eastern nations in conflict (9)

I believe the answer is:

estonians

'people' is the definition.
(people from Estonia)

'south-eastern nations in conflict' is the wordplay.
'south' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'in conflict' indicates anagramming the letters (letters clashing or in conflict with each other).
's'+'e'+'nations'='senations'
'senations' with letters rearranged gives 'ESTONIANS'.

'of' acts as a link.

(Another definition for estonians that I've seen is " Europeans".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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