On Friday, July 24, actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, 51, posted an emotional message to Instagram about the ongoing displacement crisis in Cambodia, a country where she has anchored her family’s life and humanitarian mission for more than twenty years.

Jolie described how border violence that began a year ago between Cambodia and Thailand has left roughly 30,000 people still unable to return to their communities, destroying what she characterized as the “safety and stability” that residents had known. The humanitarian emergency continues to unfold, she wrote, with no resolution in sight for those forced from their homes.

Foundation Staff Return After Evacuation

The fighting struck close to the operations base of the Maddox Foundation, Jolie’s organization that has worked for over two decades in the Samlout region on landmine clearance, forest conservation, healthcare delivery, education infrastructure and sustainable agriculture. She wrote that staff members were evacuated from the area last year due to the conflict but have now returned to resume their conservation and community support programs.

Jolie emphasized her gratitude that the foundation’s locally led team could get back to protecting the environment and helping sustain local livelihoods. Yet her thoughts remain with the displaced families still waiting to go home, she wrote, ending her post with a phrase in Cambodian about returning.

The foundation operates in partnership with rural populations in Samlout, focusing on environmental protection of the Samlout Forest, mine removal, building schools, delivering medical services and advancing farming methods built for long-term viability. Jolie noted she has grown personally close to both her neighbors and the foundation’s staff through years of collaborative work clearing explosives and developing the region.

Leaving Los Angeles for Her Son’s Birthplace

Cambodia holds profound significance for Jolie’s family. Her son Maddox, now 24, was adopted from an orphanage in Battambang in 2002, making the country his birthplace and what Jolie calls the family’s home. She described the nation as a place of special meaning, where her family has put down deep roots over more than two decades.

In 2024, Jolie stated her intention to relocate from Los Angeles to Cambodia once her youngest children, twins Knox and Vivienne, turned 18, a milestone the pair hit earlier this month. She said she remained in Los Angeles solely because of divorce-related requirements, and that she would be free to leave once the twins reached adulthood.

Her plan involves dividing time between Cambodia and visiting her children, who are scattered around the world. Among her six children, four—including Maddox, Vivienne, along with 20-year-old Shiloh and 21-year-old Zahara—have dropped Pitt from their surnames, keeping only Jolie.

Advocacy Dating Back to 2009

Jolie’s humanitarian involvement in Southeast Asia extends back years before the Maddox Foundation’s current mission. Serving as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, she visited the Ban Mai Nai Soi facility in Thailand’s northern region in early 2009, spending a day with refugees who had remained in closed camps for decades following their escape from Myanmar.

On February 5, 2009, she called on Thai authorities to allow greater freedom of movement for the thousands of refugees confined to camps, prevented from working, leaving or pursuing higher education. Ban Mai Nai Soi held 18,111 predominantly Karenni refugees at the time, part of roughly 111,000 registered refugees housed in nine camps strung along the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Approximately 5,000 people who had escaped to Mae Hong Son province during 2006 and 2007—the last major fighting period in Kayah State—were still being processed by authorities. Refugees continued arriving in smaller numbers throughout the previous year, mainly escaping forced labor and human rights violations. Jolie also addressed the situation of Rohingya boat people, noting that 78 individuals in detention had recently become accessible to the refugee agency, and she urged Thailand extend the same welcome it had historically offered other displaced populations.

Cambodia has also influenced Jolie’s filmmaking. During her appearance at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2017, she was joined by Cambodian refugee Loung Ung, whose memoir formed the basis for “First They Killed My Father,” Jolie’s film scheduled for limited theatrical release and Netflix on September 15, 2017. Ung has lived in America since 1980 and described fleeing Phnom Penh, spending six months in a Thai refugee camp and being resettled in Burlington, Vt., before relocating to Cleveland. She made her first return trip in 1995, explaining that the United States and Cambodia lacked diplomatic relations until 1993, and has gone back more than 35 times since.

Nearly two decades after that 2009 camp visit, Jolie’s latest message underscores that displacement crises persist. While her foundation’s team has returned to Samlout, tens of thousands remain far from home, a reality she made clear continues to weigh on her.