Marrakech – Grief swept Chefchaouen province on Wednesday evening after the body of toddler Soundous, missing since February 25, was discovered inside a riverbed by volunteers from the Mechkrala hamlet. The find brought a tragic end to 15 days of exhaustive searching across the region’s rugged mountain terrain.
The director of Mohammed V Provincial Hospital in Chefchaouen, Sara Hind Jaafar, confirmed to SNRTnews that the body arrived at approximately 5 p.m. It was placed in the morgue pending instructions from the competent public prosecutor. Authorities are considering transferring the body to the regional hospital in Tetouan should legal procedures require it.
Soundous was one and a half years old. She disappeared from the Krinsif neighborhood on the evening of February 25, while her mother was indoors recovering from a recent birth.
Her grandfather had left for the mosque for the call to prayer. Her grandmother had gone to the market. When the grandmother returned and asked about the child, she was told the girl had followed her grandfather – but he returned home alone. The family then alerted security services.
Earlier in the search, Soundous’s shoe was found inside the riverbed adjacent to the family’s house. The family had pointed to drowning as the most likely explanation, noting the river could be reached from the house in under five minutes.
The wadi’s difficult conditions – dense vegetation and numerous deep pits – had significantly complicated search operations throughout.
Volunteers from Mechkrala, the hamlet where the child’s father is originally from and where her paternal grandparents live, ultimately located the body. Authorities immediately cordoned off the site and transferred the body to the hospital.
The two-week search had been one of the largest mobilizations the province had seen. Royal Gendarmerie units, Civil Protection teams, trained dogs, drones, and a Royal Gendarmerie helicopter were all deployed to comb forests and mountain trails.
Red Crescent volunteers and hundreds of local citizens joined successive sweep operations that continued through the night. A judicial investigation was opened under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor from the earliest days of the disappearance.
The case drew sustained national attention, with public debate ranging across theories of accidental drowning, negligence, and abduction – all pending the outcome of the medical autopsy now underway.
Read also: Body of 7-Year-Old Girl Found Near Midelt After Disappearance