The International Atomic Energy Agency says that two and a half tons of natural uranium have gone missing from a storage site in Libya.
Libya has been fighting a civil war since the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi. For a time, the country was ravaged by a major Jihadist insurgency, but this has somewhat subsided, and the current conflict is between two rival governments, one based in Tobruk and the other, which is recognized by the UN, in Tripoli.
Against such a background, fears have risen that the uranium may make its way into the black market and be used in the construction of radiation-based weapons.
A local warlord claims to have recovered the uranium, but this remains unclear.
Gaddafi ran a secret nuclear weapons programme which was abandoned after the American invasion of Iraq. However Libya is still estimated to have around 1000 tons of uranium stored in sites across the country.
[Photo: Lisi Niesner/Reuters]