Animals in a zoo in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are suffering a dire 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 were spread on social networking sites of a number of lions that seemed very exhausting, and activists said that the animals in the "Qurashi Park" suffer from poor health conditions due to malnutrition and lack of medicines, some of them will actually die of hunger.
One of the activists wrote on his page on Facebook that he was "shocked" when he visited this zoo, "with five lions", which had become "skin on bone".
For his part, the director of wildlife in Khartoum, Brigadier Essam El-Din Gaber Hakgar said, "We are facing a problem in providing food, as it is not always available, and we often have to buy it with our own money." "We now have an emergency plan, and there is a veterinarian who will supervise the animals." A group of Sudanese volunteers flocked to the park to preview the lions after their photos were widely spread on social media.
One of these lions suffers from dehydration, has been tied and receives food with serum. Park officials noted that the health of the five lions had deteriorated in recent weeks, and some had lost two-thirds of their weight.
Masses of Sudanese volunteers flocked to the park to preview lions after their photos were widely spread on social media.