Mali woman gives birth to nine babies: government

A Malian woman gave birth to nonuplets in Morocco on Tuesday and all nine babies are "doing well", her government said, although Moroccan authorities had yet to confirm what would be an extremely rare case.

Mali's government flew 25-year-old Halima Cisse, a woman from the north of the poor West African state, to Morocco for better care on March 30. She was initially believed to have been carrying septuplets.

Cases of women successfully carrying septuplets to term are rare -- and nonuplets even rarer.

Moroccan health ministry spokesman Rachid Koudhari said he had no knowledge of such a multiple birth having taken place in one of the country's hospitals.

But Mali's health ministry said in a statement that Cisse had given birth to five girls and four boys by Caesarean section.

"The mother and babies are doing well so far," Mali's Health Minister Fanta Siby told AFP, adding that she had been kept informed by the Malian doctor who accompanied Cisse to Morocco.

They are due to return home in several weeks' time, she added.

Doctors had been concerned about Cisse's health, according to local press reports, as well as her babies' chances of survival.

Mali's health ministry said in a statement that ultrasound examinations conducted in both Mali and Morocco had suggested that Cisse was carrying seven babies.

Siby offered her congratulations to "the medical teams of Mali and Morocco, whose professionalism is at the origin of the happy outcome of this pregnancy".