AKIPRESS.COM - Sierra Leone starts a three-day nationwide lockdown Friday in an effort to halt an Ebola outbreak that has left thousands dead in the region.

Under the plan, no one will be allowed to leave their homes for three days, allowing volunteers to go door-to-door educating people on the deadly virus.

Muslims should pray at home Friday while Christians do the same on Sunday, the nation's officials said.

"We believe this is the best way for now to identify those who are sick and remove them from those who are well," said Alhaji Alpha Kanu, the nation's minister of information.

But aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said the lockdown is unlikely to stop the spread of the disease, reports CNN.

"Forced quarantines and lockdowns are driving people underground and jeopardizing the trust between people and health providers," the charity group said in a statement this month. "This is leading to the concealment of cases and is pushing the sick away from health systems."

It's not the first time a quarantine or lockdown has been enforced. In August, Liberia locked down one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital of Monrovia in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. Riots ensued.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has killed at least 2,400 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- the countries most affected by the virus -- since the first case was documented in December.