Conjoined twins among 20 sick and injured evacuated to Damascus

Syrian doctors appeal to World Health Organisation for help.

Paramedics from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent from Dmair sub-branch evacuate conjoined twin baby boys Nawras and Moaz from eastern Ghouta to the Children's Hospital in Damascus on August 12, 2016. PShow more

GENEVA// Conjoined twin baby boys in Syria were evacuated across lines from a rebel stronghold to Damascus Children’s Hospital on Friday, the first of at least 20 patients who need urgent transfers to be saved, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Moaz and Nawras, who are joined at the chest, were born on July 23 in Zahra hospital in Douma, a rural suburb of the capital which has seen some of the heaviest fighting of the war. Syrian doctors abroad appealed for help to the WHO, the United Nations health agency., saying the twins would die unless they underwent surgery. They were transferred with their mother and aunt by Syrian Arab Red Crescent ambulance following ”some days of negotiation” said Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in Syria.

The WHO is also anxious to get seriously ill and wounded patients out of Aleppo, where up to two million people are trapped between government and rebel forces. There are also 16 critical medical cases in Madaya, which is under government siege, and two in Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, which is under rebel siege, who need urgent treatment.

Staffan de Mistura, UN. special envoy for Syria, read out the names of the patients in Madaya and Foua, most of them young children, at a press conference. “The UN is ready to evacuate them. Why on earth should this not be possible? This should not be waiting for the Aleppo ceasefire or overall ceasefire, this should and can be done before it’s too late.” he said. “These are not numbers, these are people who are waiting for a medical evacuation in what has become a medieval approach to a conflict.”

* Reuters