The Children Left Behind by the “Caliphate”

During years of occupation within the urban center of Aleppo, militiamen from Jabhat al-Nusra, a jihadist group originally linked to al-Qaeda, and from the Islamic State, took local women for wives as well as kidnapped girls, often belonging to religious minorities, to make them their sex slaves. From these unions, thousands of children were born who – since their fathers are either dead or gone – have remained orphans and are not recognized by the State. A Muslim-Christian alliance has stepped in to help them.