Obama confers on Ebola with African leaders

EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) — President Barack Obama has told the leaders of Liberia and Sierra Leone that the U.S. is committed to working to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The White House says Obama spoke separately Thursday with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma from his vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Obama also offered condolences for the nearly 1,100 lives the virus has claimed.

The leaders discussed ongoing relief efforts, including through the Monrovia, Liberia-based U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team and through personnel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention working in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Neither president traveled to Washington last week to participate in a historic White House-arranged summit with African leaders. Both stayed home to tend to the Ebola outbreak.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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