A volcano in Ethiopia erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years, sending thick plumes of smoke ten miles into the sky.
The volcano is near the Eritrean border, about 500 miles northeast of Ethiopia’s capital city, in an area inhabited by the Afar people.
The Hayli Gubbi volcano erupted for several hours. The 5,000 foot-high volcano is in the Rift Valley, an earthquake-prone area where tectonic plates meet.
Ash clouds from the volcano drifted first over Arabian nations like Yemen and Oman, and then over northeastern India and Pakistan, as shown on a map of the path of the ash cloud.
Air India canceled more than a dozen flights due to the ash plumes, while Akasa Air canceled flights to several Middle Eastern cities.
The eruption occurred in the remote Afar region, where many people rely on herding for their livelihood. Their herd animals are now going hungry due to volcanic ash covering and killing the sparse vegetation. Thousands of animals are expected to starve to death as a result.
The region is rather arid, with rainfall ranging between 4 to 24 inches, and it is one of the poorest areas of Ethiopia, one of the world’s 30 poorest countries.
A local government official, Mohammed Seid, says the eruption will worsen the poverty of many villagers, by depriving their livestock of anything to eat.
“Many villages have been covered in ash and as a result their animals have little to eat,” he said.
A villager said he heard a loud sound and experienced a shock wave.
“It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash,” Ahmed Abdela added.
Volcanic eruptions can cause starvation by disrupting agriculture through ash-fall, global cooling, and crop failure. The most famous example is the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption, which led to a “year without a summer” due to ash and aerosols blocking the sun, causing global crop failures and widespread famine. Other eruptions have had similar effects, such as the 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland, which caused a famine that killed thousands and led to the deaths of livestock.
