TEHRAN, Dec. 24 (MNA) – The documents available to the Russian Defense Ministry show that the US is ramping up its biological warfare presence on the African continent, a Russian defense official said on Tuesday, according to Russian media.

"The documents at our disposal confirm that the US biological warfare presence on the African continent is growing at a rapid pace. Research institutes of the US Department of Defense actively work in the region," the Russian defense official Major General Aleksey Rtishchev said, according to TASS.

For example, branches of the US National Naval Military Medical Center are stationed in Ghana and Djibouti where active work is carried out in natural disease foci, isolation and sequencing of pathogens, the Russian general said.

The US Army Military Medical Center in Kenya has deployed a network of field stations to monitor the spread of infectious diseases in Equatorial Africa. In Nigeria, a joint medical research center and a military medical laboratory of the armed forces of the republic was established in 2024, with 10 specialists of the US Department of Defense permanently on staff, he said.

The Pentagon uses the relevant infrastructure and potential of African countries to conduct military-biological research. The US government customers are the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the National Security Agency and the US State Department. The main consumers of the research results are the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he said.

"At the same time, the United States does not disclose the ultimate goals of the experiments to partners, who are often unaware of the risks associated with the implementation of US programs," the Russian general said.

SD/