Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has launched a major humanitarian medical effort to separate Syrian conjoined twins, Celine and Eleen Abdulmoneim Alshibli, following the directives of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The twins, born to a Syrian refugee family in Lebanon, are undergoing complex surgery today at King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital (KASCH) in Riyadh.
The surgery is being carried out by the highly experienced team of the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme, led by Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, who also heads the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief). According to Dr. Al Rabeeah, the twins, born on February 28, 2024, via cesarean section in Beirut, were part of a triplet birth that included a healthy, non-conjoined baby boy.
The girls, now one year and five months old, weigh a combined 14 kilograms. Medical assessments revealed they are joined at the lower chest and abdomen, sharing vital organs including the liver and pericardium, and possibly the intestines.
The twins were brought to Saudi Arabia on December 29, 2024, through the coordinated efforts of the Kingdom’s ministries of foreign affairs and defense. After months of evaluation and planning, the surgical team is now undertaking the separation procedure, expected to last nine hours and conducted in six stages. The operation involves 24 medical consultants and specialists across pediatric surgery, anesthesia, plastic surgery, and support teams.
This operation is the fourth of its kind performed by Saudi Arabia for Syrian twins, and part of a broader medical mission under the Saudi Conjoined Twins Programme. Over the past 35 years, the programme has reviewed 150 cases and successfully separated 65 twins from 27 countries.
The initiative underscores Saudi Arabia’s ongoing role in international humanitarian aid and its commitment to saving lives, especially among vulnerable populations such as refugees.
