Ivory
Coast has closed its land borders with Ebola-affected West African neighbours
Guinea and Liberia in an attempt to prevent the world's deadliest outbreak of
the virus from spreading onto its territory, the government announced.
A
number of African nations have defied advice from the World Health Organization
(WHO) and put in place restrictions on travel to and from the countries where
Ebola has appeared, which also include Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
The
Philippines on Saturday ordered 115 troops to return home from peacekeeping
operations in Liberia due to the outbreak there.
Ivory
Coast, French-speaking West Africa's largest economy, had previously
imposed a
ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
"Faced
with new outbreak sites and the reactivation of old sites...the Ivorian
government decides to close its land borders with sister republics Guinea and
Liberia," said a statement read on state-owned television late on Friday.
Liberia's
Nimba County, which shares a border with Ivory Coast, has seen the number of
Ebola cases balloon in recent weeks. According to Moses Massaquoi, the head of Ebola
case management at Liberia's health ministry, 65 cases including 25 confirmed
patients have now been reported there.
"The
number of cases in Nimba has spiked recently and it is now an area of
concern," Massaquoi told Reuters.
Ebola
has killed 1,427 people out of 2,615 known cases identified since the West
Africa outbreak was first identified in Guinea in March, according to WHO
figures released on Friday.
However,
families hiding infected loved ones and the existence of "shadow
zones" where medics cannot go mean that the true scale of the epidemic is
unknown, the U.N. health agency said.
The
WHO has repeatedly said it does not recommend travel or trade restrictions for
countries affected by Ebola, saying such measures could heighten food and
supply shortages.
Reuters
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