Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
Lifestyle
Asharq Al-Awsat

Conjoined Yemeni Twins Flown to Jordan for Surgery

FILE PHOTO: A banner with the UNICEF logo is seen hanging on a makeshift school at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye/File Photo

Conjoined baby twins born in Yemen were taken to Jordan Saturday for separation surgery, the UN children's agency said, almost two months after a hospital warned they were in critical condition.

Born in Sanaa in mid-December, "an echocardiogram showed that each of the two children had their own heart, though the position of the heart of one of them is not normal," Majda al-Khatib, director of Al-Sabeen hospital, told AFP at the time.

The facility's "low capacity" prevented doctors from accurately determining "which organs are connected", she added.

UNICEF said Saturday that the twins "have been medically evacuated this morning to Amman, Jordan, where they will undergo a separation surgery".

"Following weeks of arrangements... they are now in the safe hands of a team of expert surgeons. We hope to see them back soon in Sanaa in good health," Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF representative to Yemen, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The twins' 35-year-old mother and father had accompanied the babies on the trip, UNICEF said.

The agency said it had been able to cover the operation's medical and logistical expenses thanks to "generous contributions from multiple private individual donors".

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.