General Khaled al-Mahjoub, commander of eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar's communications division, said on his Facebook page that the containers of uranium had been recovered "barely five kilometres (three miles)" from where they had been stored in the Sabha area of southern Libya.

Earlier Thursday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that 2.5 tonnes of the material had gone missing from a Libyan site and "may present a radiological risk", according to a confidential report seen by AFP.

Uranium ore concentrate is considered to emit low levels of radioactivity.

Mahjoub published a video showing a man in a protective suit counting 18 blue containers, which was the total that had been stored at the site.

"The situation is under control. The IAEA has been informed," Mahjoub told AFP.

He suggested the containers had been stolen and then abandoned by "a Chadian faction who thought they were weapons or ammunition".

Fighters from neighbouring Chad have previously been known to have bases in southern Libya.

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