In this photo released by the Afar Government Communication Bureau, ash billows from an eruption of the long-dormant Hayli Gubbi Volcano in Ethiopia's Afar region, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. Afar Government Communication Bureau via AP

A volcano in Ethiopia's northeastern region erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years, sending thick plumes of smoke up to nine miles into the sky, the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) said.

The Hayli Gubbi volcano, located in Ethiopia's Afar region about 500 miles northeast of Addis Ababa near the Eritrean border, erupted on Sunday for several hours.

The volcano, which rises about 1,500 feet yards in altitude, sits within the Rift Valley, a zone of intense geological activity where two tectonic plates meet.

Ash clouds from the volcano drifted over Yemen, Oman, India, and northern Pakistan, said the VAAC, which posted a map of the path of the ash cloud.

Simon Carn, a volcanologist and professor at the Michigan Technological University, confirmed on Bluesky that the ash cloud was "spreading rapidly east in the subtropical jet stream, over the Arabian Sea towards NW India and Pakistan."

In videos shared on social media, which AFP could not immediately verify, a thick column of white smoke can be seen rising.

The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program said Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, which began around 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Carn confirmed on Bluesky that Hayli Gubbi "has no record of Holocene eruptions."

A local administrator, Mohammed Seid, said there were no casualties, but the eruption could have economic implications for the local community of livestock herders.

Seid told The Associated Press that there was no previous record of an eruption by the Hayli Gubbi volcano, and that he fears for the livelihoods of residents.

"While no human lives and 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.

The Afar region is prone to earthquakes and a resident, Ahmed Abdela, told the AP he heard a loud sound and what he described as a shock wave.

"It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash," he said.

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