The US is growing increasingly concerned about joint efforts by Russia and China with African nations to expose Washington’s alleged secret military and biological activities on the continent, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
The accusations were laid out in a document presented on Tuesday by Major General Aleksey Rtishchev, the deputy chief of Moscow’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops.
According to the report, while the US claims its initiatives are aimed at monitoring infectious diseases and providing assistance to African countries, it is actually expanding its military-biological capabilities in violation of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC).
“The Americans are particularly concerned about the work carried out by Russia and China with the states of the continent to expose the true content of the military-biological programs of the United States in connection with the possible restriction of the Pentagon’s activities in this area,” Rtishchev stated.
He warned Moscow’s “African partners against cooperation with the United States in the military-biological sphere,” adding that “such cooperation turns out to be a loss of national sovereignty in the sphere of biosecurity and worsening of the disease situation.”
Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly demanded greater transparency from the US and its allies regarding their military biological activities. Earlier this year, the two countries agreed to unite against biological security threats and strengthen the BTWC, a 1972 treaty signed by 109 nations to block the development of bioweapons.
Last year, the Russian Defense Ministry drew attention to the transfer of Washington’s dual-purpose biological research projects from Ukraine to Africa under the guise of public health programs.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the former head of the Russian Army’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops who was recently killed in an explosion, stated that the relocation was in response to Moscow’s efforts to expose the Pentagon’s illegal operations in the European region.
On Tuesday, the Russian military said Africa has become a focal point of interest for the US government, which views the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous pathogens and a testing ground for experimental medical treatments.
In its latest report, the Defense Ministry identified 18 African countries where research on the resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to medical drugs are reportedly being conducted with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds. Djibouti, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia, South Africa, and Guinea are among the countries.