VIENNA: Approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium has disappeared from a site in Libya, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday.
Rafael Grossi, the chief of IAEA, informed the organisation’s members that inspectors discovered that 10 drums filled with uranium ore concentrate were missing from the declared location in Libya.
The IAEA will undertake further activities to “clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location,” it stated in a statement, without providing any additional information on the site.
Libya abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 under its former dictator Moamer Kadhafi’s long rule. Since Kadhafi’s downfall in 2011, the North African country has been embroiled in a political crisis, with various militias forming opposing alliances with the support of foreign powers.
It is presently divided between a government in the capital Tripoli in the west and another in the east supported by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
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