World Bulletin/News Desk

Senegal has decided to reopen its border with Guinea, which has been hard hit by a deadly Ebola outbreak, and resume flights to Ebola-stricken Liberia and Sierra Leone, President Macky Sall has said.

Speaking at a press conference in Dakar on Sunday, Sall said his country's decision had come in line with the recommendations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reopen borders with states affected by Ebola.

"As we must respect the provisions of the ECOWAS recommendations about the freedom of movement of persons and goods, we should have to reassess the necessary restrictive measures that were made before," said the Senegalese president.

However, he did not give a date for reopening the border with neighboring Guinea or resuming flights with Liberia or Sierra Leone.

At an extraordinary summit held last week in Accra, ECOWAS asked member states to reconsider restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement of goods and people due to fears of Ebola.

Senegal in August shut down its borders with Guinea, where the current Ebola outbreak was first recorded. It also suspended all flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A few days later, Senegal confirmed its first case of the virus, imported by a young Guinean.

"Senegal has never failed to show solidarity" with the affected countries, Sall said. However, he stressed that his country would remain "vigilant on its land, air and sea borders."

In recent months, Ebola – a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure – has killed around 4,808 people in West Africa, including nearly 1,041 in Guinea alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The virus has also reared its head in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in other countries outside Africa.

A tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.

It can also reportedly spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have died of the virus.