Mali to keep Guinea border open despite Ebola death

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 Mali will not close its border with neighbouring Guinea after a 2-year-old girl infected with Ebola was brought across the frontier by her grandmother and died in Mali this week, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Saturday.

The girl travelled hundreds of kilometres through Mali - including a stop in the capital Bamako - on public transport, potentially exposing many people to the virus, before she died in the western town of Kayes on Friday.

Keita said that the incident showed it was impossible to completely seal his country off from Ebola in neighbouring Guinea but said he remained calm as the girl's journey and potential contacts had already been traced.

"Guinea is Mali's neighbour. We have a shared border that we did not close and we will not close," he told France's RFI radio station.

Land-locked Mali relies on the ports of neighbouring Senegal, Guinea and Ivory Coast as gateways for much of its import needs. There is little accurate data but border closures by West African states trying to protect themselves from the epidemic have had a crippling effect on regional economies.