President Peter Mutharika thanked the US pop star on Friday for bringing her Malawi-born children Mercy and David back to their birth country.

Friday’s meeting was symbolic for Madonna who had a public falling-out with former President Joyce Banda.

“Thank you for welcoming me here. I was a big fan of your brother. He was very kind to us” Madonna said of Mutharika’s older brother Bingu wa Mutharika.

Madonna has been visiting Malawi since 2006. She funds a number of orphanages and schools in the country. On Thursday she helped open a new 50-bed pediatrics ward in the commercial capital Blantyre that she helped fund.