CASABLANCA, Morocco — Two U.S. service members are missing in southwestern Morocco after participating in the annual multinational African Lion military exercises, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said Sunday.
The missing personnel are U.S. Army soldiers who disappeared while on a hike, a U.S. defense official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official said they were not engaged in training at the time; the day’s exercises had finished and the soldiers were on a recreational hike.
AFRICOM said U.S., Moroccan and partner-nation forces involved in African Lion have launched a search-and-rescue operation. “The incident remains under investigation and the search is ongoing,” the command said in a statement.
Moroccan military officials said the incident occurred Saturday at about 9 p.m. near the Cap Draa Training Area by Tan Tan, close to the Atlantic coast. The area features mountainous terrain and a mix of desert and semi-desert plains. According to the U.S. defense official, the last known location was near coastal cliffs in the Cap Draa vicinity; when the soldiers failed to return as expected, U.S. and Moroccan personnel immediately began a joint search.
Search assets include helicopters, ships, mountain rescue teams and divers, the official said.
African Lion began in April and spans four countries, including Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal, and was scheduled to conclude in early May. The exercise launched in Tunisia with participants from multiple U.S. components—active-duty forces, National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force and Marine Corps—and involves more than 7,000 personnel from over 30 nations.
Running since 2004, African Lion is the U.S. military’s largest annual joint exercise on the African continent and aims to strengthen regional security cooperation and improve participating forces’ readiness. In 2012, two U.S. Marines were killed and two others injured in a helicopter crash during African Lion near Agadir. Morocco is a key U.S. ally in a region where several countries have seen military coups and shifts in foreign alignments since 2020.