By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A search and rescue team has recovered the body of a second US service member who went missing near a cliff during a training exercise near Cap Draa, Morocco, the US Army and Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces announced.
A combined team of US and Moroccan searchers found and retrieved the remains of a US service woman on Tuesday from a coastal cave roughly 500 metres from where the two soldiers went missing, the US Army said in a statement.
The Army identified her as Specialist Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, an air and missile defence crew member in an artillery regiment.
The body of the other soldier, 1st Lieutenant Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., was recovered on May 9 in Atlantic Ocean.
More than 1,000 US and Moroccan military and civilian personnel took part in the search, the Army said, covering an area of more than 21,300 square kilometres.
The bodies of Collington and Key Jr. have been returned to the US aboard a military plane.
The US service members were participating in African Lion, the US Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) largest joint exercise between US forces, NATO allies and African partner nations.
The exercise involved approximately 5,000 personnel from more than 40 countries, according to AFRICOM.
