Eruption of long-dormant Ethiopian volcano subsides

Activity Subsides at Ethiopia’s Long-Dormant Volcano After Destructive Eruption

Volcanic activity at northern Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi volcano has subsided, officials confirmed Tuesday, following an eruption that brought significant destruction to nearby communities and disrupted international air travel across multiple regions.

The eruption, described as the first recorded activity at Hayli Gubbi in approximately 10,000 years, blanketed villages in the Afdera district of Ethiopia’s Afar region with volcanic ash. Local residents reported respiratory issues, while livestock struggled to find clean water and uncontaminated grazing areas.

“Many animals, especially in the two affected kebeles, cannot drink clean water or feed on grass because it is covered by volcanic ash,” said Nuur Mussa, a regional official responsible for livestock management in the area.

Health authorities have deployed mobile medical teams to address growing health concerns among residents. Abedella Mussa, a health official overseeing the Afdera district, confirmed that people in the area were experiencing coughing and other respiratory symptoms as they contended with ash-filled air.

“Two medical teams have been dispatched to the affected kebeles like Fia and Nemma-Gubi to provide mobile medical services,” Abedella Mussa explained, highlighting efforts to reach these remote communities.

The eruption’s impact extended far beyond Ethiopia’s borders, as ash clouds disrupted high-altitude flight paths across multiple countries. Airlines were forced to cancel dozens of flights scheduled to travel through affected airspace, with the disruption affecting major carriers across Asia and the Middle East.

India’s national carrier, Air India, canceled 11 flights on Monday and Tuesday, most of them international routes. The airline cited a directive from India’s aviation safety regulator to inspect aircraft that may have flown through ash-affected areas. Akasa Air, another Indian carrier, also canceled flights to Middle Eastern destinations including Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport experienced particular disruption, with at least seven international flights canceled on Tuesday and approximately a dozen more delayed, according to airport officials.

The India Meteorological Department tracked the movement of the ash cloud, noting that high-level winds had carried it from Ethiopia across the Red Sea, Yemen, Oman, and the Arabian Sea before reaching western and northern India. Meteorologists predicted the ash would continue moving toward China and was expected to clear Indian airspace by late Tuesday.

Atalay Ayele, a geologist at Addis Ababa University, explained that such volcanic activity is not unexpected given Ethiopia’s location along an active rift system where both volcanism and earthquakes occur regularly.

“This is the first recorded eruption of Hayli Gubbi in the last 10,000 years,” Ayele told The Associated Press. “It will likely continue for a short period and then stop until the next cycle.”

The eruption underscores the geological volatility of the East African Rift System, a divergent tectonic plate boundary extending thousands of kilometers from the Afar region southward through eastern Africa. This system has created numerous active volcanoes and is gradually splitting the African continent.

For the communities directly impacted by this rare volcanic event, the immediate focus remains on addressing health concerns, securing clean water sources, and finding uncontaminated feed for livestock—all crucial elements for survival in this remote region of Ethiopia. Meanwhile, international aviation authorities continue to monitor the dispersing ash cloud as global flight schedules gradually return to normal.