DISINFO: Forced to abandon tests in Ukraine the US is expanding bioweapons research in Africa
SUMMARY
The US is expanding its biological military presence across Africa. Because Russia has managed to halt the implementation of biological warfare programmes in Ukraine’s liberated territories, the Pentagon is forced to transfer incomplete research under Ukrainian projects to other regions, with Africa as a new zone of interest for the US Defence Department and related agencies. Pentagon contractors are acting in this regard in several African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda, and South Africa.
RESPONSE
The allegation is not backed by any evidence. This disinformation story is an attempt to advance a long-discredited pro-Kremlin narrative about US military biolaboratories, utilising the frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique of adding new elements to old unsubstantiated allegations. In this case, by falsely stating that the US is expanding this practice to Africa, the disinformation story tries to promote anti-Western narratives under a supposedly “anti-colonial” frame, which is markedly in contrast with Russia’s actual colonialist practices against its neighbours and in African countries.
Claims about US military biolaboratories are part of a years-long disinformation campaign and have been debunked over and over again. Specific allegations about the presence of these facilities in Ukraine have been refuted by multiple experts, including by the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu and by Russian biologists who examined Moscow’s “proof”. Nonetheless, pro-Kremlin outlets and Russian authorities continue promoting them as they have been used as a justification for Russia’s brutal invasion of its neighbour “on defensive grounds”. This disinformation story abounds in this argument by baselessly claiming that it was Russia’s invasion that forced the US to move these biolaboratories to Africa.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the Pentagon develops biological weapons in more than 470 biolabs around the world, that Kazakhstan agreed to host 30 American biolabs relocated from Ukraine, that the US is developing biological weapons aimed at certain ethnic groups, or that the US is using biolabs around the world to create epidemics at will.