One of the five starving lions held in filthy cages at a nightmare zoo in Sudan died yesterday as the campaign to save the remaining four animals continued to gather momentum.
The lioness received intravenous fluids for several days at Al-Qureshi Park in an upstate part of the country’s capital, Khartoum, before she died on Monday. Four other lions remain in a desperate condition. (Pictured is one of the lions)
The five lions have been held in filthy cages at the park and gone without food or medicines for weeks. (Pictured is one of the malnourished lions sleeping as flies swarm over it)
The lions have lost as much as two-thirds of their bodyweight after being left at the park. Sudan is currently in the grip of an economic crisis due to a lack of foreign currency which has sparked a hike in the price of food
The park is managed by the Khartoum municipality and part funded by private donations. Officials said they spent their own money to get food for the animals on Sunday. Pictured is an emaciated lioness in a cage
Flies gather on the face of the sick lioness as she sleeps in her cage at the Al-Qureshi Park in the Sudanese capital Khartoum
The lioness rests her head on the concrete slabs. For weeks , the five lions have been suffering from shortages of food and medicine
The park where the lions are being kept is managed by Khartoum municipality but also funded in part by private donors
Park officials and medics said the lions’ conditions deteriorated over the past few weeks, with some losing almost two-thirds of their body weight.
The five lions at Khartoum’s Al-Qureshi Park have been suffering from shortages of food and medicine for several weeks
Flies swarm over the lioness’s face as she basks in the sunlight. Online calls are growing to save the lions from the nightmare zoo
Lions are classified as a ‘vulnerable’ species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Park officials said the lions’ conditions had deteriorated recently with some losing almost two-thirds of their body weight
Chunks of rotten meat covered in flies lay scattered near the cages.
An online campaign under the slogan #Sudananimalrescue has been launched to try and help the starving lions
Sudan is in the midst of a worsening economic crisis, led by soaring food prices and foreign currency shortage
A malnourished lion walks in his cage at the Al-Qureshi park in the Sudanese capital Khartoum
Sudanese citizens and activists have launched a social media campaign to save five lions from starvation after complaints that they were not receiving their daily quota of meat
It is unclear how many wild lions remain in Sudan, but several are at the Dinder park along the border with Ethiopia.
African lions are classified as a ‘vulnerable’ species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Their population dropped 43 percent between 1993 and 2014, with only around 20,000 alive today.
The overall condition of the park itself was also affecting the animals’ health, another official at the park said
A lion stares out of its cage at the park inside the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The animals have lost almost two thirds of their body weight after not receiving food or medicine for weeks