DAKAR, Senegal
Senegalese authorities on Monday reopened their country's border with Guinea five months after it was closed due to fears of the deadly Ebola virus, a Senegalese official has said.
Senegalese Interior Minister Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo said the decision was taken following a series of meetings with Guinean officials during which they briefed their Senegalese counterparts on measures taken to curb the virus.
Diallo noted, however, that security considerations were not absent from the decision to reopen the border.
"This is why a security body will be formed at border crossing points to prevent the spread of Ebola," he said in a statement.
Senegal closed its border with Guinea on Aug. 21 of 2014 in a move aimed at preventing Ebola from seeping into the country.
Some three months later, it reopened its land and air borders with its next-door neighbor.
More than 20,000 people have contracted Ebola in the three hardest-hit West African countries, namely Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
As of last December, some 8,000 people had succumbed to the virus in these three countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Ebola, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe – often fatal – illness in humans.
The virus can be transmitted to people from wild animals, but can also spread via human-to-human transmission.
