Thousands of islanders will be evacuated after a volcano erupted in eastern Indonesia, spewing a towering column of smoke and ash into the atmosphere, officials said Wednesday.
Mount Ibu, on the remote island of Halmahera, erupted for the fifth time this year on Wednesday, spewing a column of smoke four kilometres (2.5 miles) into the air.
The volcano’s alert status was then raised to the highest level by Indonesia’s Geological Agency.
“We will evacuate residents in five villages today due to an increase in Mount Ibu’s (alert) level,” said Wawan Gunawan Ali, the head of local disaster management.
He also stated that local authorities were planning to evacuate approximately 3,000 residents from nearby villages on Wednesday evening.
An AFP reporter on the ground reported that many residents had already gathered in a village hall to prepare for evacuation.
Mount Ibu has experienced a significant increase in volcanic activity since last June, following a series of earthquakes.
In the first few weeks of January, the volcano, which is one of Indonesia’s most active, erupted four times.
Residents and tourists living near Mount Ibu have been advised to avoid a five to six-kilometer exclusion zone around the volcano’s peak and to wear face masks in case of ash fall.
According to official data, Halmahera island had a population of approximately 700,000 people as of 2022.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-metre (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted more than a dozen times in a single week last November, killing nine people in the initial explosion.
Last year, Mount Ruang in North Sulawesi province erupted more than half a dozen times, forcing thousands of people to evacuate from nearby islands.
