A local chief had informed the BBC’s Afaan Oromoo service that hundreds of people in a rural part of Ethiopia, 165km (about 100 miles) north-east of the capital, Addis Ababa, have been leaving their homes in panic as a nearby volcano began showing signs of a possible eruption.
According to the chief, Sultan Kemil, the smoke coming from Mount Dofan that began around 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Thursday “has a fiery plume and it’s very high,” .
In a video shared by the Ethiopian Geological Institute on its Facebook page, steam and debris was seen being ejected from the mountain.
Over recent weeks, there have been more than a dozen seismic events around Awash Fentale – the earthquake-prone area of Ethiopia’s Afar region.
Abdu Ali, the chief administrator of the local area in Afar told Ethiopia’s FBC news site that an evacuation process is currently under way to prevent residents from sustaining injuries or worse.
Meanwhile Shiferaw Teklemariam, a spokesperson from the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission, had told Reuters that while it was too early to classify the activity as an eruption, the local authorities were taking precautions just in case.
