Speaking at a New York news conference on Thursday, at the United Nations headquarters, Hollywood actor and humanitarian George Clooney, took his new role seriously, as he had just arrived in the city from a trip to the Darfur region of Sudan.

"There are some groups protecting 250 square kilometers of desert with no helicopters and no radios that work," the 46-year-old star said regarding the crisis in the Darfur region of Western Sudan.

Clooney and Jane Holl Lute, the assistant secretary general of peacekeeping operations, were part of "a technical assessment mission" visiting the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping operation in Darfur and the U.N. missions in the Central African Republic and Chad and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, U.N. officials said.

"Millions are homeless, not from famine or disease or acts of God, but from a well armed militia intent on ridding the land of its people," he said.

According to experts, some 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes in fighting between Sudan's government and rebels.

"We tend to not get to see enough of what we need to see anymore," added Clooney, who last month was honored along with Cheadle by Nobel peace laureates for their Darfur efforts.

"It seems as if at times celebrity can bring that focus. It can't make the policies, it can't change people's minds really, but you can bring a camera where you go because they'll follow you and you can shine a light on it. That seems to be my job."

The Academy-Award winning actor is the ninth person to be officially appointed the significant role of peace messenger, joining actor Michael Douglas and Israeli classical musician Daniel Barenboim.

"I am very proud to be here as a messenger of peace, and the message is that the world is watching, and that at this point we cannot afford to fail," the star said. "There's a lot more responsibility with this one than with an Oscar, which all you really have to do is, you know, drink after the party."

Clooney, who was recently nominated for a S.A.G. award, toured U.N. headquarters with his parents, Nick and Nina, waving to the people who swarmed the lobby entrance for a glimpse of him.

The actor’s main appeal aimed at member nations to lend monetary support to cover the costs of new helicopters and trucks and on-the-ground staffers needed to put and end to the spiraling violence in the Sudan province.

"Either give [peacekeepers] the basic tools for protecting the population and themselves or have the decency to just bring them all home," Clooney said. "Because you can't do it halfway. Bring them home, and shut off your TV and your radio and your phones and the Internet, and go back into the offices and wait until it's all over."

Speaking about his brief journey, Clooney said he noticed a change in the attitude of the locals, who began to "feel a new energy in the air" upon U.N. peacekeepers arrival.

"They feel for the first time that this is the moment the rest of the world, all of the nations, united, are stepping in to help them," said Clooney, who is a co-founder of Not On Our Watch, a humanitarian group that focuses global attention on Darfur's people and has raised more than $9.3 million for the region.

"When I stood in the hospital next to women who had been raped and set on fire two days earlier, they looked up to me and said, 'Please send the UN.' Not the U.S., not China, not Russia, just the UN. You're their only hope."