Ash cloud from Ethiopia volcano disrupts flights

A volcano in Ethiopia has erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years, sending a vast ash cloud across major air corridors in the Red Sea and forcing airlines in India and the Middle East to cancel or divert flights.

- STUTI MISHRA

The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia’s Afar region near the Eritrean border, erupted on Sunday for several hours, spewing ash up to 14km into the atmosphere. Thick plumes were tracked drifting over Yemen and Oman before spreading across Pakistan and into northern India, according to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre and the India Meteorological Department.

Local officials said there were no casualties, but villages close to the eruption were blanketed in ash. Mohammed Seid, an Afar regional official, told reporters that while no people or livestock were killed, “many villages have been covered in ash and as a result their animals have little to eat”.

Residents said they heard loud explosions and shockwaves. “It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash,” said Ahmed Abdela, a resident of the Afar region, where ash covered homes and stranded travellers heading towards the Danakil desert.