SRINAGAR: The long-dormant Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia’s Afar region has erupted for the first known time in around 10,000 years, sending massive plumes of ash and sulphur-rich smoke high into the sky and disrupting aviation as far away as India. The eruption began on Sunday, startling residents with what many described as an explosive blast that shook the ground.
Local communities in Ethiopia said the volcano, located about 800 kilometres northeast of Addis Ababa, roared to life without warning. Neighbouring villages were suddenly blanketed in thick ash, with farmers and livestock herders struggling to navigate fields that had turned grey overnight. “It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash,” said Ahmed Abdela, a resident who witnessed the moment the volcano burst open.
Authorities in the Afar region reported no casualties, but said the eruption has posed a serious threat to pastoral communities whose grazing lands have now been smothered. Local administrator Mohammed Seid told the Associated Press that while both people and livestock had survived, “many villages have been covered in ash, and as a result their animals have little to eat.”
Satellite imagery from NASA and analysis from the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre showed the volcanic plume rising as high as fourteen kilometres before drifting eastwards over the Red Sea. Within hours, ash clouds had travelled over Yemen and Oman, and by late Monday, they had entered the airspace of Pakistan and India. Pakistan’s Meteorological Department issued a warning after detecting the ash over its northern regions.
India experienced some of the most distant effects of the eruption. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said ash clouds moving at high altitude—between 15,000 and 45,000 feet—posed risks to flight engines and visibility along several air routes. Air India cancelled a number of domestic and international flights on Monday to conduct precautionary checks on aircraft that had flown over regions affected by the drifting plume. IndiGo and Akasa Air issued similar safety assurances to passengers.
India’s Meteorological Department said the ash is not expected to severely impact ground-level air quality in Delhi, already affected by a prolonged pollution wave, because the plume is travelling at high altitude. The department added that the cloud would continue moving eastwards and is expected to clear Indian skies before moving towards China.
As the ash spread across the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Meteorology said the Kingdom had not experienced any direct impact. Spokesperson Hussein al-Qahtani told Al Arabiya that while satellites had detected large sulphur dioxide emissions from the eruption, “current indicators show no path of volcanic ash toward Saudi Arabia,” though authorities remain on alert for any change in weather patterns.
In Ethiopia, the eruption lasted several hours, leaving behind a thick layer of ash across villages, farmlands, and the tourist-frequented settlement of Afdera, which sits near the edge of the Danakil Desert. The Hayli Gubbi volcano rises about 500 metres in the geologically active Rift Valley, a region where tectonic plates meet and volcanic activity is common, though no prior recorded eruption of Hayli Gubbi exists.
Authorities fear long-term economic consequences for the livestock-dependent region. The ash has damaged grazing areas and could lead to lasting shortages of fodder. Emergency assessments are under way in the affected villages.
The massive eruption comes as Indonesia is dealing with renewed volcanic activity of its own. Mount Semeru in East Java erupted on November 19, producing a pyroclastic flow that travelled up to seven kilometres from the summit, injuring three people and displacing more than 500 residents. Indonesian authorities have declared the highest alert level in the region as they continue monitoring the volcano.
The Hayli Gubbi eruption, dormant for millennia, has highlighted the far-reaching consequences of major geological events, with ash now tracked from the Horn of Africa to South Asia. Aviation authorities across the region continue to issue advisories as the cloud drifts further east.
