File: Barrels containing uranium oxide (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Wednesday the disappearance of 2.5 tonnes of natural uranium from a site in Libya.

During a visit on Tuesday, IAEA inspectors “found that 10 containers containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of uranium concentrate (yellow cake) were not present where they were declared by the authorities,” wrote the director general of the entity, Rafael Grossi, in a report to member states.

The UN body has indicated that it will carry out checks.additionalto “clarify the circumstances of the disappearance of this nuclear material and its current location”.

No details were provided on the site in question.

Libya went to 2003 its nuclear weapons development program, created under the command of former chief Muammar Gaddafi.

File: A worker checks radiation levels in a container of uranium oxide in Kazakhstan (REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov)
File: A worker checks radiation levels in a container of uranium oxide in Kazakhstan (REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov)

Since its fall in 2011 after 42 years of dictatorship, Libya has been mired in a serious political crisiswith rival forces that divide the country between east and west and endless militias and mercenaries scattered throughout the territory, in a context of foreign interference.

Two governments are vying for power, one based in Tripoli (west) recognized by the UN, and the other supported by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, a strongman from eastern Libya.

(With information from AFP)

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