24 January 2020 – Finally help for the suffering animals, including four lions, in Sudan: A rescue team from the global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS is on its way to the capital Khartoum, where the big cats and other animals are on the brink of starvation in the Al Qurashi Family Park zoo. The Sudanese authorities have granted the team, led by FOUR PAWS veterinarian Amir Khalil, permission to enter the country and provide the animals with urgently needed food and medical care. The FOUR PAWS team is expected to arrive at the zoo on Monday, 27th January. However, the emergency mission is a race against time: one of the original five lions has already died. 

In the past few days photos of the emaciated lions circulated around the world and caused an international outcry. Due to a lack of financial resources, the starving animals could no longer be fed adequately. Thanks to FOUR PAWS the suffering of these animals will finally come to an end. 

Expertise in crisis and conflict zones

Emergency animal rescues in delicate situations are no new territory for FOUR PAWS. Amir Khalil and his team have already worked in countries such as Libya or Egypt in the past. More recently, in 2016 and 2019 the FOUR PAWS team evacuated three zoos in the Gaza Strip. In 2017, FOUR PAWS rescued 13 animals from an amusement park near Aleppo in Syria as well as the last two surviving bears and lions from a zoo in Mosul, Iraq.