The Libyan Armed Forces assured that they found in the south of the country the containers with 2.5 tons of uranium that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had given up as missing. This was announced this Thursday by General Khaled al Mahyub.
Mahyub, who directs the communication of the Army forces under the command of Marshal General, Khalifa Hafter -a strong man from the east of the country- announced on his Facebook page the discovery five kilometers from the place where they were stored in the Sebha region, located 600 kilometers south of Tripoli.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was actively working to verify this information.
Stolen uranium in Libya
The Libyan Secretary General of the Army Command, Abdelkarim Hidiya, indicated that his department “was alerted to the disappearance of ten containers and an opening in the warehouse that allowed the barrels to exit.” To which measures were taken and a force from Haftar’s army was assigned to begin their search in a territory towards the border with Chad.
The officer estimated that the containers were stolen before being abandoned by “a Chadian faction, believing they were weapons or ammunition.”
IAEA safeguards (controls) inspectors alerted this Thursday of the disappearance and the IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, sent a brief report to the Member States to report the fact.
Natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate has numerous possible uses, ranging from nuclear power generation, to medical and industrial applications, but also to the military.