Animals in a zoo in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, suffers a miserable situation that prompted the launch of a massive electronic campaign to save them last week, while officials later announced the death of one of the five sick and exhausted lions from starvation.
Pictures spread on social media of a number of lions that seemed very exhausted, and said that the animals in the "Qurashi Park" suffer from poor health conditions due to malnutrition and lack of medicines, some of which will actually die of starvation.
One of the written on his Facebook page that he was "shocked" when he visited this zoo "with five lions", who had become "skin on bone".
For his part, Director of Wildlife in Khartoum, Brigadier General Essam, said, "We are facing a problem in securing food, as it is not always available, and we often have to buy it with our own money." He added, "We now have an emergency plan, and there is a veterinarian who will supervise the animals." Masses of Sudanese volunteers flocked to the park to inspect the lions, after their pictures spread widely on social media.
One of these lions suffers from dehydration, and he was chained and receiving serum feed. Park officials say the health of the five lions has deteriorated in recent weeks, with some losing two-thirds of their weight.
Crowds of Sudanese volunteers flocked to the park to inspect the lions, after their pictures spread widely on social media.
The agency stated that the number of lions in Sudan is not known, and that some of them are in the "Dinder" park on the border of Ethiopia. She added that the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified African lions as endangered. Their number decreased by 43 percent between 1993 and 2014, and there are currently 20,000 lions.