Online calls are growing to help save five ‘malnourished and sick’ African lions held at a park in Sudan’s capital, with some demanding the creatures be shifted to a better habitat.
The five lions are held in cages at Khartoum’s Al-Qureshi Park in an upscale district of the capital, but for weeks now they have been suffering from shortages of food and medicine.
‘I was shaken when I saw these lions at the park… their bones are protruding from the skin,’ wrote Osman Salih on Facebook as he launched an online campaign under the slogan #Sudananimalrescue.
‘I urge interested people and institutions to help them.’
Park officials and medics said the lions’ conditions deteriorated over the past few weeks, with some losing almost two-thirds of their body weight.
‘Food is not always available, so often we buy it from our own money to feed them,’ Essamelddine Hajjar, a manager at Al-Qureshi park told AFP.
The park is managed by Khartoum municipality but also funded in part by private donors.
Sudan is in the midst of a worsening economic crisis, led by soaring food prices and foreign currency shortage.
Talks are ongoing to make the best decision for the animals.
