lions Sick and starving in Sudan park

Activist Osman Salih posted on Facebook images of the big cats on Saturday, writing “seeing these animals caged and be treated this way made my blood boil.”

Five African lions held in cages at Al-Qureshi Park in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, suffering from shortages of food & medicine. The poor animals lost two-third of their body’s weight with open wounds on their faces. Some of the lions were mere skin and bones.

Activist Osman Salih posted on Facebook images of the big cats on Saturday, writing “seeing these animals caged and be treated this way made my blood boil.”

According to Salih, one lioness has died on Monday, while he launched an online campaign to help save the African creatures under the slogan #Sudananimalrescue.  Salih wrote: “I was shaken when I saw these lions at the park … Their bones are protruding from the skin…I urge interested people and institutions to help them.”

According to AFP, Brigadier Essamelddine Hajjar, a manager of the Park,  said Sudan is experiencing a worsening economic crisis, with food prices soaring amid a foreign currency shortage. The park,  he said, managed by Khartoum municipality but funded in part by private donors. But, its overall poor condition, made park officials often paid for food for the lions with their own money.

African lions population dropped 43 percent between 1993 and 2014, with perhaps only 20,000 left in the wild. The African big cats are classified as a “vulnerable” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Read more about: #Sudananimalrescue, Africa, Lions, Sudan