Angelina Jolie meeting with refugees in Chad. Photo: Karl Schembri/NRC
Angelina Jolie is continuing her humanitarian work, raising awareness for support needed for those displaced by conflict in Sudan.
On Sept. 25, the Oscar winner, 49, shared a photo on Instagram from her visit with refugees in Adré, Chad, who have escaped Sudan amid an ongoing internal conflict in the African country that began in 2023.
Jolie urged the United Nations to "scale up the humanitarian response in Sudan and the region" as the U.N. held its 2024 General Assembly in New York City.
“The people I’ve listened to have endured unspeakable violence and have lost everything. The support from local responders here has been a lifeline for refugees who have otherwise been forgotten by the world," Jolie said in a statement about her visit.
"It is incredible to see what they have been able to achieve and the lives they have managed to save, and all the time world leaders have stood silent or turned the other way.”
Jolie, who worked with the U.N.'s refugee agency in multiple positions between 2001 and 2022, wrote on Instagram that the conflict in Sudan has left more than 10 million displaced within the country, while more than 2 million others have fled to neighboring countries. As Jolie wrote, some 25.6 million people in the region "are facing acute hunger."
The director-actress recently spoke to her experiences in humanitarian work and visits to war-torn areas of the world while talking about her new movie as a director, Without Blood, with The Hollywood Reporter. Without Blood follows a woman (played by Salma Hayek Pinault) who confronts a man who had a hand in her family's murder during a past armed conflict.
"I’ve never had to experience war or lose somebody through armed conflict. But I have people I care very deeply about who have," Jolie said in the interview. "I’ve seen people who have nothing give everything. And I’ve seen people who have everything do nothing."
Movie star George Clooney
was led away in handcuffs after storming the Sudanese Embassy
protesting the actions of the country's president Omar Al-Bashir, an
alleged war criminal.
Clooney made the rounds in Washington this week, hoping his superstar
wattage will help shine a light on the situation in Sudan. The actor
testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and held private
meetings with the Secretary of State and President Obama about the
African nation's dire humanitarian situation and the Obama
administration's policy. He led a protest today outside of Sudan's
embassy calling on Omar Al-Bashir, an alleged war-criminal, to stop the
violence and allow humanitarian aid into the country.
Also among those arrested were Clooney's Father Nick Clooney, President
of United to End Genocide and former Congressman Tom Andrews,
Congressmen Jim McGovern, D-MA, Al Green, D-TX), Jim Moran, D-VA., and
John Olver D-MA, Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous,
and Enough Project Co-Founder John Prendergast, according to a police
statement.
The Hollywood actor has been working with the John Prendergast from the
advocacy group the Enough Project for years. He co-founded the Sudan
Sentinel Project, which tracks human rights abuses on the border of
Sudan and South Sudan using satellite cameras. Clooney's said in the
past that he wants to draw attention to the atrocities Al-Bashir's
allegedly directed against his own people for decades, to "make him
famous."
Celebrities Vs. War Lords
Clooney's not the only celebrity to get involved with human rights
causes. Angelina Jolie may be one of the most well-known movie star
philanthropists. She's a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations
Refugee Committee, and has spoken out and given money to numerous
causes. She attended the reading of the first verdict from the
International Criminal Court this week, finding Congolese warlord Thomas
Lubanga guilty of using child soldiers. Jolie had been part of the
process to bring Lubanga to justice. She visited the court three times
during the trial and funded the Lubanga Chronicles, a program that used
written articles, radio and the web to inform the Congolese public and
the international community about the case.
"Perhaps [this] verdict of guilty provides some measure of comfort for
the victims of Mr Lubanga's actions," Jolie said in a statement. "Most
of all it sends a strong message against the use of child soldiers."
Actor Ben Affleck launched his own organization the East Congo
Initiative, focused on supporting and funding local humanitarian groups
in Eastern Congo. He too has testified before Congress and met with
leaders in Washington, even traveling to the Democratic Republic of
Congo with Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain. His friend
Matt Damon has started an organization focused on access to clean water
in the developing world. Actor Don Cheadle has also fought for human
rights and against genocide with the Enough Project.
Making a warlord famous was also the goal of Invisible Children, the
group behind the Kony2012 video which focused on capturing Ugandan rebel
leader Joseph Kony. After 80 million hits and dozens of news stories
it's clear that despite the controversy over the accuracy of the
campaign, Invisible Children did accomplish at least one goal- Kony is
now a household name. Arguably the biggest influence didn't come from
academics or experts on Africa but from tweets by Justin Bieber and P.
Diddy.
"Because attention and resources are always worth something, once
celebrities bring attention an organization can try to command it," says
David Meyers, a professor of Sociology at the University of California,
who has researched the effects of celebrity activism. "Even if he
doesn't understand the issue it's probably a good thing anyway."
So are we in an age of Celebrity Foreign Policy?
"This is nothing new in American culture. If you look at the civil
rights march on Washington in 1963 you see photos of Sidney Poitier and
Charlton Hesston," However, celebrities ponying up money for causes may
not be new, but starting your own organization is."
Meyers says just like in politics, there's more money within the
celebrity world today, and stars can use that money to further their
causes in new ways.
"They can be like the Koch brothers and George Soros and hiring
academics and people they trust to do the work they are passionate
about," says Meyers.
But there is a downside to celebrity activism. Meyers says entertainers
taking on causes without knowing about the subject, or primarily to
boost their own image, can backfire, hurting the star's credibility and
drawing negative attention to the issue or organization. He cites the
fan backlash over Kelly Clarkson's tweet supporting Ron Paul as an
example.
"Anyone can tweet about anything. You have to get celebrities to say
something that is of consequence."
