The corpse of a gendarme officer was over the weekend found in an advanced state of decomposition in a river in Mundemba after he went missing days earlier.

The gendarme officer went missing on February 27 following violent clashes between security forces and separatist fighters in the locality of Ikassa.

According to security sources, the sergeant was killed and thrown into a river around Mudemba and was only discovered on February 2.

This follows a heavy search operation carried out by soldiers and gendarmes who had been called in for back up following an attack on a security post by close to 50 armed men.

Two gendarmes then went missing since then before the corpse of one was discovered at the weekend.