Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog have found that about 2.5 tons of natural uranium has disappeared from a Libyan facility that is not controlled by the government, the watchdog told member states on Wednesday, seen by Reuters.

According to a confidential statement from the head of International Atomic, the find is the result of an inspection originally planned for last year that “had to be postponed due to the security situation in the region” and was finally carried out on Tuesday. Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi.

IAEA inspectors “discovered that 10 barrels containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of UOC (uranium ore concentrate) previously declared (by Libya) … to be stored at this location were not at this location,” it said in the page statement.

The agency will conduct “further action” to determine the circumstances under which the uranium was removed from the location, which it did not name, and where it is now, the statement added.

“Losing information about the current location of nuclear material could pose a radiological risk as well as nuclear safety issues,” she said, adding that getting to the site required “complicated logistics.”

In 2003, Libya, under then-leader Muammar Gaddafi, abandoned its nuclear weapons program, which had yielded centrifuges capable of enriching uranium and information on the design of a nuclear bomb, but made little progress toward building one.

Libya’s interim government, installed in early 2021 under a UN-backed peace plan, was only supposed to last until elections scheduled for December of that year, which have yet to take place, and its legitimacy is now also being contested.