A handful of volunteers, to the rescue of lions in Sudan

Before, Kandaka lay, hungry, in a small cage in Khartoum, but today she watches her litter of puppies playing in a reserve in the middle of the savannah. And all thanks to a handful of passionate volunteers in one of the poorest countries in the world.

In Sudan, Kandaka, the title of the Nubian queens that marked the history of the region in ancient times, is now linked to the protesters who rise up against the generals in power.

This five-year-old lioness rose up against hunger and confinement. In January 2021, after eight months of preparations, she was released with two males from the Khartoum Zoo, when the whole country had just made its “revolution”, emerging from the yoke of decades of Islamist military dictatorship and international embargo.

Dehydrated, these powerful cats were saved thanks to an online campaign. Since then, the small project has been expanded and the Al Baguir reserve, which now houses them - an hour's drive from Khartoum - now has 17 lions aged six months to six years, governing over more than four hectares.

Every day, Othmane Salih, Moataz Kamal and a score of volunteers mobilize to distribute the five to ten kilos of meat needed per day to each of these felines, as well as to a small herd of hyenas that have their own open-air space.

From the start, this small team of passionate people must juggle schedules, since everyone has another job. In addition, since the military coup in October, they must surround roads and bridges blocked by the army at every anti-coup demonstration.

Gasoline is expensive and the trip is bumpy, but “I come every day because it makes me happy,” says Kamal, a 30-year-old volunteer. This telecommunications engineer in love with dogs since his childhood joined the project since its inception.

People and animals suffer from hunger in Sudan

There are Scarface, a great male with beige fur, and Al Tayyeb, a lion who inherited the name of a volunteer who recently traveled to Uganda to resume his studies and become a veterinarian after discovering his passion in the reserve.

There is also Mansour, which means winner in Arabic, because he survived hunger, zoo and violence in Sudan.

In Dinder National Park, near the border with Ethiopia, now at war, there are only about 20,000 lions left in the wild, including a handful in Sudan. But all these cats are mouths to feed, explains Othmane Salih, founder of the reserve, who personally went to search for all the lions in captivity in Sudan: both in the Khartoum zoo and in private homes.

Salih struggles every day - and often puts his hand in his pocket like all the other volunteers - to buy more than 100 kilos of meat for the felines. “We have donors in Sudan and abroad, but it's not enough,” he tells AFP, especially since “neither the government nor the companies we have contacted have agreed to help us.”

Because in a country where one in three inhabitants depends on humanitarian aid, raising funds to care for animals is a challenge.

“There are many Sudanese who are hungry, so all the help goes to them, they are the priority and it is normal,” says Salih.

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