The US is exploiting Africa as a testing ground and is relocating “unfinished” biological weapons projects from Ukraine to the continent under the guise of public health programs, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, alleged on Tuesday that “illegal” experiments are continuing in Nigeria, in addition to a host of African countries listed in a previous report.
The project is being led by America’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the State Department, he added.
According to Kirillov, Washington claims that biological projects in Nigeria are aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. He cited recent figures showing that 60% of Nigerians suffering from the disease have received antivirus therapy using products from “Pentagon-affiliated” biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, which Kirillov said had previously tested its drugs on Ukrainians.
“However, the effectiveness of this program raises serious concerns. Despite annual funding increases totaling about $100 million, the HIV incidence rate has remained virtually unchanged and corresponds with 2009 figures. The mortality among HIV-infected people also shows unfavorable progression,” the Russian official stated.
This suggests that “American pharmaceuticals, even with the documented increase in consumption in Nigeria, do not have a tangible therapeutic impact, and Nigerian citizens are being exploited as a ‘free clinical resource,’” Kirillov added.
READ MORE: US military could create ‘global biological crisis’ – Russian MOD
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that a three-year contract signed between DTRA and American non-profit RTI International in August 2022 to monitor infectious disease threats in Africa’s largest economy is part of the Pentagon’s broader “biological espionage” schemes.
This includes “analyzing the epidemic situation along the borders of geopolitical adversaries and in the expected regions of military contingent deployment,” according to the ministry. Moscow also claims to have documents confirming that the Pentagon was spying on the biological situation in “Iraq and Afghanistan bordering China, Türkiye, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.”
Earlier last month, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed the US was transferring dual-purpose biological research activities to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda, and South Africa. The move came after Moscow repeatedly exposed the Pentagon’s illegal military-biological operations in Europe, including Ukraine, Kirillov said.
