Wasn't that Angelina Jolie?

On Sunday, Rick Neal landed in Chad's capital N'Djamena (via Paris) to begin a month-long mission looking at internally displaced people (IDPs) in Chad and the Central African Republic. He sent the following in today:

"Sunday was Oscar Night in Los Angeles, but there in Paris Angelina Jolie was making her way to the flight to N'Djamena, surrounded by a coterie of Air France staff. I found myself with her again yesterday morning, on the small UN plane coming out to Abeche, the humanitarian outpost in eastern Chad. She flew on to Bahai in the northeast, to shed light on the situation of refugees coming from Darfur. For a few minutes, at least, Refugees International got to bask in the light of humanitarian celebrity.

"Then it was back to work - my first day in the field for a mission looking at the situation among refugees and IDPs in eastern Chad. From here, it is difficult to tell what is happening: a huge caseload of 230,000 refugees from Darfur, and now 100,000 IDPs, many displaced in the past few months. I was afraid that this was a continuing trend, but it seems that displacement, especially in the southeast, has tapered off since President Deby visited the area last November for 10 days of consultations with the local chiefs.

"I am on my way down there now. I have to cut this short to make sure I don't miss my flight to the airport. I hope I find that attacks against civilians have stopped and that the IDPs are getting the help they need."