The residents and rescue and relief teams in the Libyan city of Derna are facing great difficulties in dealing with thousands of bodies that have been washed ashore by the waves, or decomposing under the rubble, following the floods that destroyed buildings and left thousands of victims.

Residents and rescue workers have buried thousands of flood victims in eastern Libya in mass graves, sparking controversy and increasing public outrage through social media.

The Libyan Red Crescent announced that the death toll from the floods that swept through the city of Derna in eastern Libya has risen to 11,300 dead, and a local official suggested that the number of victims could be much higher.

The Secretary-General of the relief organization, Marai Al-Dersi, revealed that there are more than 10,000 missing persons in the coastal city so far.

Additionally, the World Health Organization and other relief organizations have called on the Libyan authorities to cease burying flood victims in mass graves, explaining that this could cause many long-term psychological issues for families, or serious health problems if the bodies are buried near water sources.

A report from the United Nations indicated that more than a thousand people have been buried in this manner so far.

For its part, the biological safety and biosecurity official for the emergency program of the WHO stated, in a joint statement with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "We urge the authorities in the areas affected by the tragedy not to rush into mass burial operations or to burn bodies en masse."

The statement added, "Rushed mass burial operations lead to many psychological problems in addition to social and legal issues," emphasizing that the bodies of victims of natural disasters do not pose any threat at all, but what does pose a threat is the presence and burial of bodies near freshwater sources due to the possibility of waste leaking from and into them.

Bilal Sablouh, the forensic medicine director for Africa at the International Committee of the Red Cross, revealed that superstitions regarding the spread of epidemics drive people to bury the dead in a collective and rushed manner, which in turn increases the risk of many individuals remaining missing for many years, causing suffering for their families.

He added that the pressure from these rumors encourages rapid mass burial operations that rarely show respect for the dead.

The World Health Organization and the Red Cross recommend the need to identify the bodies and to bury them in individual graves marked clearly. It is important to document the burial location and draw a map indicating how to access it, and they emphasized the necessity of avoiding the cremation of unidentified bodies.