A place of respite: 17 years later, the zoo in Tripoli, Libya, reopened its doors

It was only supposed to close for work, he found himself in the middle of violence, with animals massacred by armed men. The zoo in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, reopened last month after 17 years of closure, providing a new space for recreation - and respite - for residents.

On this first day of Eid el-Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, hundreds of families crowd in front of the zoo gate despite the rain.

With wide eyes, the children, in their brand new outfits bought for Eid, observe the bears, lions, Bengal tigers, white oryx with their long, thin, straight horns in their cages or enclosures.

Several indigenous species are also there, such as the fennec, the leptocere gazelle or the waddan - named after a region in southern Libya -, a species of mouflon, all threatened due to poaching.

Dressed in traditional embroidered clothing, Mohammed Erbeh, a 44-year-old civil servant accompanied by his three children, says he is "very happy" with the reopening. “Finally a place to take children for outings that they have been deprived of for almost twenty years,” he says happily.

- Lions killed -

Created in 1985, the Tripoli zoo, a 45-hectare park in the heart of the capital, closed in 2009, under Muammar Gaddafi, for modernization work. But the project came to a grinding halt in February 2011, when a popular revolt broke out against the authoritarian power of the Libyan leader.

The staff had to flee the fighting, the park being located not far from Bab al-Aziziya, the famous fortified complex of Muammar Gaddafi.

The animals were traumatized, stray bullets littered the ground, AFP noted. To help the abandoned animals, NGOs sent food and medicine.

Violently repressed, the uprising turned into a civil war, with an international military intervention followed by the fall of Gaddafi's power, then a prolonged instability which continues today.

Since 2014, Libya, undermined by fratricidal struggles, has been divided in two and governed by parallel executives: that of Abdelhamid Dbeibah in the west, recognized by the UN; another in the east, affiliated with Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

For many years, the park remained closed, in the hands of a militia. A migrant sorting center has been set up nearby.

When fighting broke out last year between pro-government forces and the militia which controlled the sector of the city where the zoo is located, dozens of animals were slaughtered by armed men, according to statements made to AFP by a management official preferring to remain anonymous.

At the time, photos and videos circulated on social networks, showing lions shot and armed men loading gazelles into 4x4s.

- Forget crises -

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