WASHINGTON: A foundation headed by actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt has donated $1 million (€740,000) for use in the relief effort in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region and neighboring Chad, where hordes of Darfurians are in camps or homeless.

The Washington office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees announced the donation Thursday and said it was to go to the UNHCR, the International Rescue Committee and the SOS Children's Villages, a nongovernmental organization. Jolie is a UNHCR good will ambassador.

UNHCR said the three agencies are caring for more than 2 million people displaced within Darfur and 240,000 refugees in eastern Chad.

At least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes since 2003 when ethnic African rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated central government. The Sudanese government is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic tribes and unleashing militias known as the janjaweed — a charge the government denies.