The babies have spent the first days of life in an incubator at Al-Thawra hospital, Yemen
The babies have spent the first days of life in an incubator at Al-Thawra hospital, Yemen
Parents of conjoined twins born in Yemen fear only one will survive as doctors say they need medical treatment abroad.

The twins, Abdul-Khaliq and Abdul-Rahim, were born in January joined at the neck down, a condition known as parapagus dicephalus.

The rare phenomenon doesn't leave much hope for the survival of the babies.

They have spent their first days of life in an incubator in intensive care at Al-Thawra hospital, in Sana'a.

Doctors predict their health will decline unless they can be saved and moved away from the war-striken country.

The parents of the newborns live in a rural community on the outskirts of Yemen's capital, according to doctors.

The father, Akram Ali Ahmed, 20, said that he does not want them to be separated and nor for one of them to die for the sake of the other.

He said: 'I want nothing to happen to my children. I don't want them to be separated and nor for one of them to die for the sake of the other.

'I want them both in one body. I do not object to what God has given me.'

Faisal al-Babli, head of the children's department at the hospital, said that the twins are fairly stable so far.

However, this is predicted to change as the hospital pleads for funding and assitance to move the children outside of Yemen.

The medical capabilities here are very poor, especially in light of the ongoing war, and the doctors fear the babies will not make it.

Dr al-Balbi said: 'It is a unique case in Yemen - two children in one body with two heads, two hearts, two lungs, two stomachs and two backbones. They share only the pelvis and limbs of two hands and two legs.'

The prevalence of conjoined twins has been previously estimated to be one in 50,000 to 100,000 births, according to the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

'Their health situation is fairly stable so farm' Dr al-Balbi said. 'They are sometimes given artificial respiration.

'We are currently looking for funding and assistance so that we can provide appropriate healthcare for their very critical health status and move them out of Yemen.

'We hope that international organizations concerned with the health of children and newborns to help save this two-headed baby.'

Yemen is currently gripped by a civil war between Houthi insurgents, who control the capital, and the internationally-backed government.

The fighting has brought about a historic humanitarian crisis in the region as medical and food supplies have become scarce.

Dicephalic twins, who share a pelvis, have been recorded to reach adulthood, but only without complications associated with their heart, lung and intestine formations.

In some cases conjoined twins can be separated, but the success with depend on which organs are shared and the skill of the surgeons.

American twins Abby and Brittany Hensel, born in Minnesota in 1990, are also dicephalus parapagus twins who gained popular media attention.