Ben Affleck on ABC’s Nightline.

Ben Affleck will become an unorthodox correspondent of sorts when the actor chronicles the humantarian crisis in the Congo on ABC’s nightly newsmagazine Nightline this Thursday.

Ben said he’s visited the Congo three times in the last year. The actor’s developed the desire to learn more about the war and hunger that have killed thousands of people in the African nation over the past ten years.

“It’s fairly clear that in the modern age that there is a currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency, really,” Ben told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I’ve discovered that you can spend it in a lot of ways, or you can squander it. You can be taxed, as well. I really started thinking long and hard about how to use that currency as long as I had it.”

Nightline follows Ben to the Congo at 11:35 p.m. Thursday on ABC.