As Raqqa embarks on a future without the SDF, the northeastern Syrian city faces the delicate work of reintegrating former fighters and repairing social fractures left by years of shifting rule.
SDF-held Raqqa city is tense, its nights under curfew punctuated by gunfire and arrests. Residents feel cut off from the rest of Syria, fearing the possibility of partition and a return of IS.
While some humanitarian organizations target informal displacement camps where 150,000 people have languished for years in Syria’s northern Raqqa province, the response falls short of what is needed, particularly for widows.
