Their names are Bissie and Eyenga, the one-year-old sisters recently underwent a successful operation in France to separate them.

The girls received a warm welcome from their relatives, who gathered to greet them at the airport in Yaounde. Their mother said she was happy to see them apart.

In an interview Ngali Laurelle said: “It was very difficult to see them stuck together and I always felt uncomfortable seeing them stuck together, now I’m proud to see them separated, each doing their own thing.”

Doctors carried out the surgery in November 2019 and it went without a hitch. The girls however had to stay back for rehabilitation. They spent part of their convalescence with a foster family. Despite medical clearance of their state of health, they will be monitored for a while by a doctor.

Angwafo Fru Forbuzhi, director of the Yaounde Children’s hospital said: “They’ll go to the hospital, we’ll take them in, there must be a follow-up protocol, physical follow-up, psychosocial follow-up and so on.”

The twins, who now manage to be separated for a few moments without causing panic for one of them, will have to go through more procedures. After the physical separation, they will have to deal with their psychological separation and their relationship with their mother.