Aside from Jamaica, another South American country, Guyana, said it had denied entry to citizens from the West African states, as well as Nigeria, for the past five weeks. Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and St. Lucia took similar steps earlier this week. Obama has so far resisted the call for a ban, saying on Thursday that experts have told him "a flat-out travel ban is not the way to go" because current screening measures on travelers are working. At a White House meeting, Obama said he is considering appointing an Ebola "czar" as the lead US coordinator in the effort to contain the virus. He also signed an order calling up military reservists to help the government's anti-Ebola operation. Earlier on Thursday, Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautioned Congress members that a ban could only make the crisis worse. He said some West Africans have US passports, and that others could come into the country without revealing their point of origin, making it harder to trace them. 'Burning building' Closing national borders to people from countries hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak is "not an effective strategy" for stopping the deadly disease, the president of the World Bank said on Thursday. There is only one way to end the Ebola crisis, which is to stop the spread of the disease in its origin, the World Bank's Jim Yong Kim told the Reuters news agency. "All this talk about closing our borders ... it's as if you were in a burning house, in your room, and you start putting wet towels under the door to keep the smoke from coming in," Kim said. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is focusing on 15 African countries to stop the disease. Meanwhile, the European Union health ministers agreed on Thursday to try to improve the systems put in place by West African nations to screen departing passengers for Ebola, but disagreed on the need to check travellers arriving in their own countries. France said on Wednesday it would begin screening air passengers for Ebola if they arrive on flights from regions hit by the disease, following similar decisions by Britain and the Czech Republic. But other EU governments have made no such move, as WHO regulations do not require screening. On Thursday, Dr. Isabelle Nuttall, a WHO director, said that the outbreak is still out of control, and that the death toll will rise this week to more than 4,500 from the 9,000 infected patients. "Our data shows that cases are doubling every four weeks," she said, adding that cases were growing in Guinea's capital Conakry, while data-gathering in Liberia, which has a significant under-reporting of cases, make it hard to draw any conclusions there.

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The Federal Government of Nigeria says it has reached a ceasefire agreement with the Boko Haram sect.

After the agreement was reached on Friday, the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, ordered all service chiefs to comply with the ceasefire agreement between Nigeria and Boko Haram in all theaters of operations.

The announcement came at the end of a meeting between the Nigerian and Cameroonian armed forces where both sides decided on collaboration in communication, intelligence sharing, tactical partnerships and handling of internally displaced.

Air Chief Marshal, Badeh assured the Cameroonian military that the agreement would not have any effect on the transnational operation between the two countries to fight crimes within their joint borders.

Release Of Chibok Girls

The Principal Private Secretary to the President, Ambassador Hassan Tukur, met with Chadian Government officials as well as representatives of the Boko Haram sect in N’Djamena, Chad on Friday morning.

Securing the release of the 219 Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram was a major part of the discussions. It is not clear if the release of the girls was agreed on.

The terrorist group had said it would only release the girls in exchange of members held in detention across Nigeria.

The Boko Haram sect was represented at the meeting where the ceasefire agreement was reached by Danladi Ahmadu.