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- Robert Plummer
- BBC news
Armed forces in eastern Libya say they have found about 2.5 tonnes of uranium ore reported missing by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ten drums containing ore were found near the border with Chad, said the head of the army’s media unit.
The IAEA said it was “actively working to verify” media reports.
Authorities sounded the alarm after inspectors visited an undisclosed site earlier this week.
This area was not a government controlled area.
Since Libya’s former leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was sacked in 2011, the country has been divided into competing political and military factions.
It is now split between an interim government in the internationally recognized capital, Tripoli, and a separate government in the east, led by General Khalifa Haftar.
Neither controls the south where uranium was extracted.
Thursday’s statement was from the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, the military that supports the Libyan eastern regime.
General Khaled Al-Mahjub, commander of the communications department, said a container of uranium was “barely found five kilometers away”. [three miles]”From where it was stored in southern Libya.
Uranium is not radioactive in its current form.
Access to the site has recently become difficult, according to the IAEA.
Inspectors wanted to visit the site last year, but the visit was postponed due to fighting between rival Libyan militias.
Since NATO-backed forces overthrew Gaddafi, many foreign governments and groups have competed for influence in Libya. will be
The oil-rich country is largely lawless and was formerly called the “arms bazaar”.
In 2013, the United Nations reported that weapons smuggled from Libya were fueling conflicts in Africa and other parts of the Middle East.
But experts told the BBC that the scarce uranium cannot be turned into nuclear weapons in its current form.
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