Lugar Takes Nunn-Lugar Arms Control to Africa

Breaking: Lugar Visits Kenyan Bio Labs

For details and updates throughout the week, visit the Nunn-Lugar Africa Mission page. Updates and photos will also be available on Senator Lugar's Facebook and Flickr pages. Search for Twitter updates (@senatorlugar) with our #NunnLugar hashtag!

A press packet for the Africa Mission is also available.

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) leads a mission to Africa next week with a team of Pentagon arms control experts to help secure deadly biological diseases, in addition to destroying other lethal armaments.

“Deadly diseases like Ebola, Marburg, and Anthrax are prevalent in Africa,” said Lugar, the Ranking Member and former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “These pathogens can be made into horrible weapons aimed at our troops, our friends and allies, and even the American public. This is a threat we cannot ignore.”

Lugar and former Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) developed the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program in late 1991 to secure and destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the republics of the former Soviet Union.

“Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are active in Africa, and it is imperative that deadly pathogens stored in labs there are secure,” Lugar said. “Building cooperative programs with African countries are in our mutual security interests, and will also have the humanitarian effect of identifying and controlling new diseases that could quickly spread around the world.”

Senator Lugar and the Pentagon team will inspect laboratories in Kenya and Uganda.  These labs are used to diagnose infectious diseases, study the nature of the diseases, and facilitate treatment to help prevent outbreaks.  Pentagon officials, however, have found insufficient security at the labs given the terrorist threat.

Visit this page for details and updates throughout the week. Updates and photos will also be available on Senator Lugar's Facebook and Flickr pages. Search for Twitter updates by using our #NunnLugar hashtag. A press packet for the Africa Mission is also available.