Libya uranium: Missing barrels recovered, claims eastern forces

• Military forces in eastern Libya have discovered 2.5 tons of uranium ore.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency had reported missing.
• But it has not been verified by the IAEA.

Military forces in eastern Libya claim to have discovered around 2.5 tons of uranium ore that the International Atomic Energy Agency had reported missing.

According to the head of the forces’ media unit, ten drums carrying the ore were discovered close to the Chadian border.

The assertion has not been verified by the IAEA.

After sending inspectors to the unnamed site earlier this week, which was not in an area under the jurisdiction of the government, the agency raised the alert.

With Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow in 2011, the nation of Libya has been split up into rival political and military factions.

Currently, it is divided between a temporary, internationally recognized administration in Tripoli, the capital, and another in the east, headed by Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Both parties lack authority over the southern region from whence the uranium was extracted.

The Libyan National Army, the military force that supports the government in eastern Libya, released the statement on Thursday.

The canisters of uranium were discovered “just five kilometers [three miles]” from where they had been housed in southern Libya, according to Gen Khaled al-Mahjoub, commander of its communications branch.

The IAEA claims that lately, access to the facility has been challenging.

Inspectors wanted to go there last year, but due to violence between different Libyan militias, the trip had to be postponed.

Since Col. Gaddafi was overthrown by forces backed by NATO, numerous foreign governments and organizations have been striving for influence in Libya.

The Wagner Group in Russia and fighters for the Islamic State are among them.

The oil-rich nation is mainly lawless and has been called a “arms bazaar” in the past.

According to a 2013 UN report, crises in other regions of Africa and the Middle East were being stoked by weapons smuggled out of Libya.

The missing uranium, according to specialists, could not be turned into a nuclear weapon in its present state, they told the media.

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