Democracy Dies in Darkness

New suffering for the children of the ISIS caliphate as hunger and sickness spread

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June 19, 2019 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
Women and children sit at the waiting area in a clinic at al-Hol camp on May 28, 2019. About 49,000 of the refugees in al-Hol detention camp are children, and many are going hungry as conditions worsen. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)

AL-HOL, Syria — At a makeshift clinic on the edge of this desolate camp, several dozen of the last and smallest inhabitants of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed ­caliphate bawled and whimpered as they waited to see the only doctor on duty.

Shortages of food, clean water and medicine combined with the early arrival of the scorching summer heat have contributed to worsening conditions in the camp, which houses more than 73,000 family members of the Islamic State fighters who in March made their last stand in the Syrian village of Baghouz, the final sliver of the caliphate’s territory.