The girls are joined from their chests to their tummies, and share a single umbilical cord.

According to the Hospital Superintendent, Dr Trust Zaranyika, who was the chief surgeon during the emergency caesarean that took place at 01h15 yesterday, it is still unsure whether the girls share any organs, like a heart, lungs or kidneys.

"There's still a whole process ahead awaiting these girls," he told The Namibian.

"They'll be seen by a specialist who will have to evaluate their conjoined condition, and whether operations could be done [to separate them]."

The baby girls, who were lying in an incubator next to the bed of their mother, Martha Dawis, looked healthy yesterday and according to Dr Nicholas Kisyeri, their vital functions such as breathing and heartbeat were good.

Dawis told The Namibian that she "felt sorry" for her girls, and hoped that the right decisions would be made regarding their well-being.

"This is something we see and read about in books, but it's rare and I never thought it would happen for real," she said.

"I knew I had twins, but not that they were joined like this."

She said there was no record of twins in her family history.

The Director of Health and Social Services for Erongo, Christencia Thataone, told The Namibian that the caesarean delivery was a team effort between State and private doctors, where private doctor and anaesthetist Dr Meyer Brand assisted doctors Zaranyika and Kisyeri.

"The mother was transferred from Arandis, and we had to decide whether she would eventually have to go to Windhoek for the delivery.

This would have been too risky though, as she could have suffered from a ruptured uterus that could have been fatal to her and the babies; and so we decided to perform an emergency caesarean," she explained.

In September 2006, conjoined twin girls were born in northern Namibia.

They shared a heart and when they were separated, both died of heart failure.

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