BREAKING NEWS: Malawi court allows Madonna to adopt twin girls… days after the singer DENIED she wanted to adopt the four-year-old sisters 

• e-mail

Malawi's High Court has given the go ahead for Madonna to adopt twin girls, bringing the total of children she has taken in from the impoverished African country to four. 

The US singer's previous adoptions stirred anger among some Malawians who accused the government of allowing the pop star to skirt laws that ban non-residents from adopting children.

Madonna had denied reports that she wanted to adopt again after she visited Malawi last month, at the time saying her trip was for her charity work, but it has transpired she was seeking to take in Esther and Stella Mwale, as exclusively revealed by MailOnline. 

Madonna with Mercy (right) and adopted son David Banda (left) in Malawi in 2013

The Vogue singer was pictured at Lilogwe High Court after a hearing last month

Estelina Kalumpha plays with the orphaned twins who regarded her as their birth mother

Madonna flanked by her Malawian adopted children, David, right, and Mercy, speaks to media in 2013 in Namitete, Malawi

Madonna was inside the courtroom when the approval ruling was delivered, Mlenga Mvula, a spokesman for Malawi's judiciary said on Tuesday. 

'Today the High Court made a ruling that she should go ahead and adopt the two children,' Mvula said, adding that the singer was smiling after the court's ruling.

Madonna with her Malawian adopted children, David (front left) and Mercy (middle left), during a trip to the country in 2013

Mvula could not provide details on the children Madonna will adopting, saying it was against the law to divulge such particulars at this stage.

'Within a year she should provide us with a home survey report which the court has ordered her to provide,' Mvula said, referring to one of the conditions of the adoption.

The girls, called Stella and Esther, have lived together in an orphanage for two years.

The 58-year-old singer applied for custody of the girls at the High Court in the capital Lilongwe on January 25. 

On the very same day, Madonna denied she was in the African country to adopt any more children, and insisted she was only there to visit a children's hospital and her charity.

But Lucy Bandazi, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, told MailOnline all the paperwork had been submitted.

Adoption: Madonna submitted a 12 page application for custody of four-year-old twin girls called Stella and Esther at the High Court in the capital Lilongwe on Wednesday morning

On Saturday, the family of the four-year-old twins were last night urged not to let the children go.

The warning came from the relatives of Mercy James, who was adopted by the singer eight years ago in Malawi.

In a message to the twins’ family, Mercy’s uncle, Peter Banet, said: ‘You may never see your children again, never have contact with them. 

'It will be as if your children have died. That is the pain we feel every day.’

Mr Banet signed consent papers in 2009 allowing Madonna to adopt Mercy, the daughter of his 14-year-old sister, Mwandida, who died days after giving birth.

The family now say they were tricked into believing Mercy would stay in contact with them and even return home one day.

US pop diva Madonna sits among Malawian children during a visit to the Mkoko Primary School, one of the schools Madonna's Raising Malawi organization has built jointly with US organization BuildOn

Madonna, 58, adopted Malawian children David Banda and Mercy James in 2006 and 2009. 

The mega-selling pop singer has two other children, Lourdes and Rocco, from previous relationships.

Madonna had denied reports that she wanted to adopt again after she visited Malawi last month, at the time saying her trip was for her charity work.

Madonna established the non-profit Raising Malawi in 2006 to provide health and education programs, particularly for girls, in the southeast African country. 

After arriving in Malawi by private jet with her entourage, she block booked the exclusive Kumbali Country Lodge, according to local reports. 

She claimed to have travelled to the country to check up on her charity projects, just as she did before adopting her son David Banda in 2008. 

The country's Human Rights Commission claimed his adoption, from the Hope Orphan Care Centre in the village of Mchinji, was illegal because the singer had not been in Malawi for at least 18 months, and thereby not a resident.

Madonna performs during the halftime show in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI in 2012

Madonna said she was in the country for ten days promoting charitable causes at the time and pledged more than £1.6m to help 900,000 orphans in the country.

A year later she adopted a Malawian girl, Mercy Jones, from the Kondanani Children's Village in Chichiri, in Malawi's second largest city Blantyre.

Three years earlier, in 2006, Madonna had founded the Raising Malawi charity to address the poverty and hardship endured by the African country's orphans and vulnerable children.

She returns to the country regularly and in July last year, she went back to check on the progress of a medical centre she was supporting in Blantyre.

The proud mother posted pictures of herself with son Rocco, eldest daughter Lourdes, as well as David and Mercy, as they toured the country. 

David's father Yohane Banda said he had healed his ongoing rift with the superstar the same month.

He had earlier blasted the singer over the dispute, claiming his son David Banda would be better off living in poverty than with her as she and ex-husband Guy Ritchie went through a bitter divorce. 

In an exclusive interview at the time, he told MailOnline: 'I only want the best for my child and I was concerned for him when the custody battle with Rocco was happening.

She was stripped of her VIP status by former president Joyce Banda's government in 2013 and accused of being 'uncouth' for seeking eternal gratitude from the impoverished country after adopting the two children.

But Banda was ousted in 2014 elections and the new president, Peter Mutharika, moved to repair relations, saying 'my government has always been grateful for the passion Madonna has for this country'.

American citizens adopting foreign children must do so through an accredited 'Adoption Service Provider' in the United States because Malawi does not have any adoption agencies, new rules state.