Hollywood star Angelina Jolie called Sunday for a larger focus on conflict prevention rather than responding to its repercussions, during a visit to Iraq with the UN refugee agency.
"I hope that we can find the strength to find a better way forward together: so that we move into a new era of preventing conflict and reducing instability, rather than simply struggling to deal with its consequences," Jolie told a news conference at the Domiz refugee camp in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
The Domiz camp opened in 2011 and is home to 40,000 Syrian refugees who fled the seven-year civil war across the border.
"When UNHCR's Syria response was only 50 percent funded last year, and this year it is only 17 percent funded, there are terrible human consequences," Jolie said.
"We should be under no illusion about this," she added.
Agence France Presse said it was Jolie's third visit to the camp as UNHCR special envoy, after previous visits in 2012 and 2016.
On Saturday, Jolie visited western Mosul, held by ISIS militants for nearly three years until they were pushed out by Iraqi forces last summer.
The visit marked Jolie's 61st mission -- and fifth to Iraq -- with the UN refugee agency since 2001.
