George Clooney held at gunpoint

George Clooney. Photo / Reuters

George Clooney was held at gunpoint on a trip to war torn Sudan.

The Hollywood star - who filmed documentary A Journey to Darfur with his father Nick Clooney about Sudan's crises - revealed he was robbed by
children brandishing AK47 rifles as he passed through a vehicle checkpoint in the North African country in 2006.

He said: "We were in southern Sudan and going through a checkpoint and there were all these young kids with AK47s. They went through the car and took what they wanted.

"We hid all our tapes and stuff but they pointed the guns at us and stole what they could. It happens all the time."

Clooney - who has travelled to Sudan in his role as a United Nations
Messenger of Peace to highlight the plight of the country's refugees - joked his assailants did not recognise him because "they don't have great TV out there".

Since 2003, thousands of people have been killed in the Darfur region of the country by the Sudanese military and the government-sponsored militia known as the Janjaweed.

Clooney has previously asked the world's most powerful countries to help
ease Sudan's problems.

He said: "There are innocent people there being put in harms way in the most brutal of fashions. The world needs to step up. People need to come forward and say 'genocide is taking place'."

- BANG! SHOWBIZ