Three lions in Sudan were shot dead after trying to escape from their cage inside a paramilitary Rapid Support Forces base, an animal shelter official told local newspapers on Thursday, but (Al-Yurae) was unable to obtain official comment.
The three lions, named after Leo, Rinas and Amani, were born two years ago in a reserve south of the capital Khartoum, the Sudan Wildlife Rescue Centre, according to Moataz Kamal, an activist.
The lions, classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), were sold as “endangered” and transported to a private RSF farm located in Omdurman, in the northwestern suburb of Khartoum.
“Last night we received a call from an officer of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), that the three lions had escaped from their cage,” the center said in a statement. We immediately prepared our team, equipment and plans to safely capture or sedate the lions.”
“They called us (later) and told us they had shot the three lions and not to come,” the statement said.
The Sudan Wildlife Rescue Centre was founded in 2021 after an online campaign to save diseased and malnourished lions in a dilapidated park in Khartoum.
Volunteers have since faced the challenge of maintaining the centre’s smooth functioning, especially as Sudan faces an economic crisis exacerbated by a military coup led more than a year ago by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Kamal pointed out that the reserve still includes 18 lions
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), known as the Janjaweed, who committed the heinous massacres in Darfur and many other places across Sudan,
