A developing emergency is unfolding in southwestern Morocco, where two American service members have gone missing following their participation in a yeary multinational military exercise hosted in the North African nation, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced in an official update Sunday.
Joint search-and-rescue missions have been mobilized by the Moroccan government, U.S. military personnel and other partner nations that took part in the African Lion drills, according to AFRICOM’s public statement. The command confirmed that the circumstances surrounding the disappearance are still being probed, and search activities are continuing across the affected area.
The incident was recorded on May 2 in the vicinity of the Cap Draa Training Area, located near Tan Tan along Morocco’s Atlantic coastline. The African Lion exercise kicked off across four different North and West African nations in April, with additional training activities hosted in Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal, and was originally scheduled to conclude in the first week of May.
First launched in 2004, African Lion stands as the largest annual joint military training exercise led by the U.S. across the African continent. The event routinely draws senior military leadership from the U.S. and its key partner states across Africa, bringing together thousands of service members to coordinate on tactical training and security cooperation. U.S. military leaders have long framed the annual multinational exercise as a critical platform for deepening regional security partnerships, boosting participating forces’ operational readiness, and preparing for a range of unforeseen global crises.