Cameroon’s coast guard says four bodies have been found out of 37 soldiers who went missing when a military vessel capsized off the shores of Dibunsha in the South West region on Sunday.

The deep sea divers from the country’s navy, reportedly pulled out the first two bodies on Wednesday, 19th July 2017 but rescue efforts were suspended due to poor weather conditions.

The vessel sank with 37 people on board during a routine mission to the Bakassi peninsula.

Traces of fuel were identified by helicopter patrols and maritime rescue teams searched the zone and identified the wrecked vessel at the sea bed some 40 meter deep. Since then rescuers have been battling to cut open the ship and extract the remaining corpses.

Sources say a security cordon has been created around the area where the ship has been located to prevent waves from sweeping the corpses away.

The oil-rich peninsula was handed over to Cameroon by Nigeria following an International Court of Justice ruling.