Angelina Jolie visits refugee camp

Beauty Angelina Jolie returned from a two-day trip to refugee camps in eastern Chad this week, where she met and visited refugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

The Oscar-winning actress and UN goodwill ambassador praised humanitarian workers for their efforts to provide assistance and called for more aid.

In a statement released by the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) she said: "What is most upsetting is how long it is taking the international community to answer this crisis."

Jolie, who visited both Chad and neighboring Sudan's Darfur region with UNHCR in 2004, said she was struck by the sense of hope she encountered at the Oure-Cassoni camp, which has a refugee population of more than 26,000.

On Wednesday, Angelina Jolie – penned an op-ed piece for Wednesday's editions of The Washington Post in which she sheds light on the growing violence in Darfur and calls for justice in the region.

In her 868-word report, which carries a dateline from Bahai, Chad, Jolie writes:

"Sticking to this side of the Sudanese border is supposed to keep me safe. By every measure -- killings, rapes, the burning and looting of villages -- the violence in Darfur has increased since my last visit, in 2004. The death toll has passed 200,000; in four years of fighting, Janjaweed militia members have driven 2.5 million people from their homes, including the 26,000 refugees crowded into Oure Cassoni.

Until the killers and their sponsors are prosecuted and punished, violence will continue on a massive scale. Ending it may well require military action. But accountability can also come from international tribunals, measuring the perpetrators against international standards of justice.

What the worst people in the world fear most is justice. That's what we should deliver."

In stating her current aim, she writes, "I hope the international community will intervene, right away, to protect the people of Darfur and prevent further violence. The refugees don't need more resolutions or statements of concern. They need follow-through on past promises of action."

PEOPLE reported exclusively over the weekend that Jolie was back in Africa.