![A satellite image shows ash rising from the eruption of the Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia [NASA Handout via Reuters]](https://en.kaabtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/20251125638996416802452820.jpg)
Addis Ababa (KAAB TV) – A long-dormant volcano in northern Ethiopia has erupted, sending plumes of ash across the Red Sea toward Yemen and Oman.
The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia’s Afar region about 800 kilometers northeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, experienced an effusive eruption for several hours on Sunday morning. The eruption covered the nearby village of Afdera in volcanic ash.
There have been no reported casualties. The eruption sent thick plumes of smoke up to 14 kilometers (nine miles) into the sky, with ash clouds reaching Yemen, Oman, India, and northern Pakistan, according to the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in France.
Ahmed Abdela, a resident of the Afar region, described the eruption as feeling “like a sudden bomb had been thrown.” Many tourists heading to the Danakil Desert were left stranded in ash-covered Afdera on Monday.
Mohammed Seid, a local administrator, confirmed that there were no human casualties but warned of potential economic impacts for the community of livestock herders.
“While no human lives or livestock have been lost so far, many villages have been covered in ash, and as a result, their animals have little to eat,” he said.
Hayli Gubbi rises approximately 500 meters and sits within the Rift Valley, a region of intense geological activity where two tectonic plates meet.
The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program noted that Hayli Gubbi has no recorded eruptions in the current geological epoch, the Holocene, which began roughly 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.
So far, no casualties have been reported.