ejabberd Error Failed to open socket: Reason: IP address not available:

I am not able to get my ejabberd server running on an EC2 instance. I get the following error:
E(<0.272.0>:ejabberd_listener:512) : Failed to open socket:
{5222,ejabberd_c2s,inet,{ip,{184,73,212,239}}}
Reason: IP address not available: A.B.C.D

where A.B.C.D = an Elastic IP address
I have the Elastic IP address connected to the EC2 instance and I am using the same Elastic IP address in my ejabberd.cfg file as:
{{5222, "A.B.C.D"}, ejabberd_c2s, [

{certfile, "/opt/ejabberd-2.1.9/conf/server.pem"}, starttls,
{access, c2s},
{shaper, c2s_shaper},
{max_stanza_size, 65536}
]},

Does anyone know how I can figure out why this Elastic IP address is not available?