World-record nonuplets return home to Mali from Morocco

BAMAKO, Mali

Parents of a record nine babies are said to be “absolutely delighted” to finally return home after 19 months living in an intensive care clinic.

Mother Halima Cissé, 27, and her husband Abdelkader Arby, 36, from Mali, were preparing on Tuesday to meet family and friends in the country’s capital, Bamako, and then head to Timbuktu.

It continues almost two years at the Ain Borja specialist clinic in Casablanca, Morocco, following the birth of their non-twins in May 2021.

“It has been a long wait, with many tears, but the babies are now in top shape and everyone is delighted to be back home,” a close friend of the family in Mali told Mail Online.

"They are getting a lot of support from the Malian government and, God willing, they are now going to enjoy a beautiful new home in Timbuktu. It has been specially designed for a very large family and is equipped with everything they need.

"The children have gotten stronger every day and they really get along with each other, they are really very cute.

"There was a lot of excitement when they left the clinic in Casablanca, they saw the staff there as family, but the plan was always to go home as soon as possible.”

The five girls and four boys now hold the Guinness World Record for the most children to survive a single birth, and will join their older sister Soda’s four, making 10 children in all.