
Ben Affleck is trying to draw more attention to the conflict in eastern Congo, touring refugee camps and consulting with aid workers in the region where at least 250,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting.
The actor, who has visited the Central African country four times since 2007 and has made a documentary about its problems, is also encouraging people to donate more to aid agencies working there.
"I'm not an expert in international affairs or diplomacy, but it doesn't take that to see the tremendous suffering here," he told The Associated Press on Thursday in Goma, the regional capital. "It's not something that we as human beings can, in good conscience, ignore."
Some fear the current crisis could once again draw in neighboring countries. Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war split the vast nation into rival fiefdoms and involved half a dozen African armies.