Russia’s ministry of defence has released explosive information about what it alleges to be military biological research conducted by the US army in several African countries, including Nigeria. Russia claims the US sees Africa as “a test ground for experimental medications”.
The information includes named senior US personnel operating in those African countries. The US has history of using blacks even in America as guinea pigs for medical experiments, most famously in Tuskegee, Alabama.
The named official allegedly involved in military biological programmes in Nigeria is Helina Meri, the country director in Nigeria for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Meri according to Russia “oversights US military biological activities in Nigeria. Actively participated in the Defense Reference Laboratory in Abuja, which plays an important role in conducting virus testing in 29 states across the country. Provides American specialists with unlimited access to biomaterials (blood samples) of the local population of Nigeria.”
In a briefing by document by the Deputy Chief of the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces Major General Aleksei Rtishchev, Russia claims that “Africa is now the zone of heightened interest. The U.S. Administration sees the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous infections’ agents and a test ground for experimental medications”.
The paper goes on to say: “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 U.S. programmes.
“Washington has deliberately exploited the economic problems of African states’ healthcare systems to organise research.”
“American-funded biological projects in Nigeria are aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. As volunteers, Nigerian nationals are participating in a clinical evaluation of antiviral drugs from the Pentagon-affiliated company Gilead. I would like to remind you that this pharmaceutical company conducted trials of its drugs on Ukrainian citizens.”
“There is a clear trend: pathogens that fall within the Pentagon’s area of interest subsequently become pandemic, and American pharmaceutical companies become the beneficiaries.
“An example is infections such as yellow fever, monkeys fever, and Rift Valley fever, whose outbreak has been detected in Cairo, where the U.S. Navy biological warfare laboratory was based.”
The work in Nigeria is described in this way: “Helina Meri and Mark Breda are regional directors of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Nigeria and Tanzania. They acted as organisers of the collection of biomaterial from the local population for the benefit of the U.S. military, as well as the testing of unlicensed drugs”. In 2011 pharma giant Pfizer was accused of testing experimental drugs on children in Nigeria.
It is very unlikely that the regime of president Bola Tinubu would take any serious action to investigate or stop any possible clandestine biological research in Nigeria by the US military. This is because Tinubu’s history of drug dealing in Chicago in the 1980s/90s and the subsequent decision of the US authorities to refuse the release of classified information on this, has led some commentators to conclude that the Nigerian president is a CIA asset.
