Russian Defense Ministry Says US Increased Bio-Military Research in Africa
17:41 25.06.2024 (Updated: 17:45 25.06.2024)
© Sputnik . Denis Aslanov
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Defense Ministry has evidence suggesting that the United States has stepped up biological warfare research in Africa, the head of the Russian military's biological defense arm said on Tuesday.
"The documents at our disposal prove that the biological military presence of the US in the African continent is rapidly increasing," Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov told a new briefing.
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) carried out large-scale research on bat-borne hantaviruses and took bat samples in Kenya in October. US military biologists also studied the effects of anti-malarial drugs on locals in 2022.
Officials from the Pentagon, the Departments of State, and Health met in January of this year together with the chiefs of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to discuss outlooks for further testing in Africa, Kirillov added.
"The construction of a lab and an education center in Ethiopia were launched under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and with DTRA [Defense Threat Reduction Agency]'s funding," Kirillov said, adding this was but one of the US's Africa initiatives.
