TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) — It was supposed to be a temporary closure for renovations, but for 17 long years, Tripoli’s zoo — like the city itself — was embroiled in the violence of Libya’s brutal conflict.

Only now, during a spell of tenuous calm, has the zoo managed to reemerge from a bloody past, reopening its doors last month to offer rare relief in a city that still bears the scars of years of fighting.