On Wednesday, inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog discovered that approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium had gone missing from a Libyan site that is not under government control.

The discovery is the result of an inspection that was originally scheduled for last year but "had to be postponed due to the security situation in the region," according to a confidential statement issued by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on Tuesday.

The IAEA inspector said that "10 barrels containing about 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of UOC (uranium ore concentrate) (which Libya previously declared to be stored at this location) are not present at this location. "We found that," the statement said. one-sided statement.  

The agency would conduct "further activities" to determine the circumstances surrounding the uranium's removal from the site, which it did not name, and where it is now, according to the statement.

"The loss of knowledge about the present location of nuclear material may present a radiological risk, as well as nuclear security concerns," it said, adding that reaching the site required "complex logistics".

Libya, then led by Muammar Gaddafi, renounced its nuclear weapons program in 2003, despite having obtained centrifuges capable of enriching uranium as well as design information for a nuclear bomb.

Libya has seen little peace since a NATO-backed uprising ousted Gaddafi in 2011. Political control has been divided between rival eastern and western factions since 2014, with the most recent major conflict ending in 2020.

Libya's interim government, established in early 2021 as part of a United Nations-backed peace plan, was only supposed to last until a December election, which has yet to take place, and its legitimacy is now being questioned.