--- title: "Active Volcanoes in Africa: 12 That Are Still Erupting" url: https://33travels.com/active-volcanoes-in-africa/ author: "Tomas Herrera" published: 2026-10-19 updated: 2026-10-19 place: "World" --- # Active Volcanoes in Africa: 12 That Are Still Erupting ## TLDR - Africa has well over 100 volcanoes with eruptions in the last 11,700 years (the Holocene), but only a dozen or so have erupted in living memory. - The most active are Nyiragongo and Nyamuragira in DR Congo, Erta Ale in Ethiopia, and Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania. - Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and Mount Elgon are not on this list. They’re dormant or extinct. - For current status, check the [Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program](https://volcano.si.edu/), which publishes weekly activity reports. ## Contents - [Active, dormant, extinct: what the labels mean](#active-dormant-extinct-what-the-labels-mean) - [Why Africa has so many volcanoes](#why-africa-has-so-many-volcanoes) - [The 12 active volcanoes at a glance](#the-12-active-volcanoes-at-a-glance) - [Central and East African Rift](#central-and-east-african-rift) - [Afar and the Red Sea rift](#afar-and-the-red-sea-rift) - [West and Central Africa](#west-and-central-africa) - [Islands](#islands) - [Famous but not active](#famous-but-not-active) - [Can you visit them?](#can-you-visit-them) - [How to check current status](#how-to-check-current-status) Most lists of active volcanoes in Africa pad themselves with famous mountains that haven’t erupted in centuries. This one doesn’t. Every volcano below has erupted within roughly the last 25 years, and several are erupting more or less constantly. ## Active, dormant, extinct: what the labels mean Volcanologists use three rough categories. - **Active:** has erupted in recorded history or shows ongoing unrest, such as gas emissions, a lava lake or earthquake swarms. - **Dormant:** hasn’t erupted for a long time but could. - **Extinct:** has no magma supply and won’t erupt again. The boundaries are fuzzy. The Smithsonian counts any volcano that erupted in the Holocene as one worth tracking, which is why the “over 100” figure looks so large. For this list, “active” means a confirmed eruption since 2000, with older cases noted where a volcano is plainly still restless. ## Why Africa has so many volcanoes The continent is slowly splitting. The East African Rift runs from the Afar region of Ethiopia south through Kenya and Tanzania, and a western branch cuts through Uganda, Rwanda and eastern DR Congo. As the crust stretches and thins, magma rises into the gaps. That’s why nearly every volcano on this list sits on or next to the rift. For a longer list of the rift’s volcanoes with their last recorded eruptions, see [The Complete List of Active Volcanoes in East Africa](https://33travels.com/active-volcanoes-in-east-africa/). The exceptions are Mount Cameroon, which sits on a different line of weakness called the Cameroon Volcanic Line, and the island volcanoes Fogo, Karthala and Marion, which are hotspot or ocean-island volcanoes. ## The 12 active volcanoes at a glance | Volcano | Country | Type | Last confirmed eruption | Status | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Nyiragongo | DR Congo | Stratovolcano | 2021 | Active, lava lake | | Nyamuragira | DR Congo | Shield volcano | Recurring, most recently in the 2020s | Very active | | Ol Doinyo Lengai | Tanzania | Stratovolcano | Recent effusive activity (major eruption 2007-08) | Active | | Erta Ale | Ethiopia | Shield volcano | Ongoing lava lake, fissure flows in 2017 | Active | | Hayli Gubbi | Ethiopia | Shield volcano | November 2025 | Recently erupted | | Nabro | Eritrea | Stratovolcano | 2011 | Active | | Dabbahu | Ethiopia | Stratovolcano | 2005 (rift event) | Restless | | Manda Hararo | Ethiopia | Fissure system | 2007-2010 | Restless | | Mount Cameroon | Cameroon | Stratovolcano | 2012 | Active | | Fogo | Cape Verde | Stratovolcano | 2014-15 | Active | | Karthala | Comoros | Shield volcano | 2005-2007 | Active | | Marion Island | South Africa | Shield volcano | Early 2000s | Active | ## Central and East African Rift ### 1. Nyiragongo (DR Congo) Nyiragongo is the one that matters most to the people living near it. The volcano rises about 3,470 meters above Goma, a city of well over a million people, and its summit crater holds one of the few permanent lava lakes on Earth. The lava here is unusually fluid, which means it can travel fast. In 1977 the crater walls cracked and the lava lake drained in under an hour, killing hundreds. In January 2002 flows ran through Goma and buried a large part of the city. In May 2021 it happened again: lava stopped at the edge of town, but around 30 people died and hundreds of thousands were told to leave. Ground cracks and earthquakes kept going for weeks. ### 2. Nyamuragira (DR Congo) Nyamuragira sits about 13 km northwest of Nyiragongo and is Africa’s most frequently erupting volcano. It’s a broad shield, not a steep cone, and it erupts every few years, mostly as lava flows from fissures on its flanks. Gas emissions from it are large enough to show up in satellite data. It gets less attention than its neighbor because its lava tends to flow into uninhabited forest and park land. Both volcanoes sit inside Virunga National Park, one of the most biodiverse protected areas in Africa and home to mountain gorillas. ### 3. Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania) Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only volcano on Earth known to erupt natrocarbonatite lava. It’s a carbonate-rich, sodium-rich lava that erupts at roughly 500 to 600 degrees Celsius, far cooler than basalt, which comes out above 1,000. Fresh flows look black and turn white within days as they react with moisture in the air. The Maasai call it “Mountain of God.” A major explosive episode in 2007-08 reshaped the summit crater, and the volcano has kept producing smaller lava activity since. The climb starts at night, because the slopes are steep, loose and exposed. ## Afar and the Red Sea rift ![A stunning view of a red sulfur pool in the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia's geological wonder.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ethiopia-desert.jpeg) ### 4. Erta Ale (Ethiopia) Erta Ale means “smoking mountain” in the Afar language. It’s a low shield only about 600 meters high, sitting in the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest places on the planet. Its summit has held a persistent lava lake for at least a century. In January 2017, new fissures opened on the flanks and flowed for weeks, and the lake’s level and activity have varied since. ### 5. Hayli Gubbi (Ethiopia) Hayli Gubbi sits a short distance from Erta Ale and had no known eruption for about 12,000 years. That changed in November 2025, when it erupted and sent an ash plume that drifted as far as northern India, disrupting flights. It’s the clearest recent reminder that a volcano with no history can still wake up. ### 6. Nabro (Eritrea) Nabro was not on most people’s radar until June 2011, when it erupted with almost no warning. At least seven people died, and the plume of sulfur dioxide reached the stratosphere, making it one of the largest sulfur releases of that year. The local community lived on the slopes without any monitoring, and had never recorded an eruption there. ### 7. Dabbahu (Ethiopia) Dabbahu is best known for what happened beneath it in September 2005. A segment of the rift roughly 60 km long opened by several meters in days, as magma pushed into the crust in a single dike. It’s some of the best-documented evidence that continents break apart in sudden bursts, not slowly and steadily. ### 8. Manda Hararo (Ethiopia) Manda Hararo is a fissure system on the same rift segment as Dabbahu. Between 2007 and 2010, a series of dike intrusions and small fissure eruptions widened the rift again. There’s no cone to climb, just cracked ground and fresh basalt, which is why it rarely appears in travel guides. ## West and Central Africa ### 9. Mount Cameroon (Cameroon) At 4,040 meters, Mount Cameroon is the highest peak in West and Central Africa and the region’s most active volcano. It erupts roughly every 15 to 25 years. Eruptions in 1999 and 2000 sent lava toward the coast, and the most recent in 2012 was smaller. The Maasai have Ol Doinyo Lengai; locals here call it “Mongo ma Ndemi,” Mountain of Greatness. It’s also one of the few active African volcanoes with a regular hiking industry. The annual Mount Cameroon Race of Hope sends runners from Buea to the summit and back. ## Islands ![Aerial view of a city nestled in an arid landscape with distant mountains under a clear sky.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/cape-verde.jpeg) ### 10. Fogo (Cape Verde) Fogo is the answer to the date confusion you’ll find online: it erupted in 1995 and again in 2014-15, so both dates are right. The 2014 eruption started in November, ran for about three months and destroyed the villages of Portela and Bangaeira inside the crater caldera, a place where around 1,000 people lived. Nobody died, but the community lost its homes and farmland. The summit cone, Pico do Fogo, rises to 2,829 meters, and the caldera floor is still farmed for grapes. Wine from the crater is sold on the island. ### 11. Karthala (Comoros) Karthala dominates Grande Comore and has one of the biggest volcanic calderas in the world, about 3 by 4 km wide. Eruptions in the 2000s, particularly in 2005, forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes as ash covered the island. Unlike many African volcanoes, it’s well monitored. Just offshore, a separate event is worth knowing about. In 2018, a new submarine volcano grew about 50 km east of Mayotte, reaching roughly 800 meters tall on the seabed. ### 12. Marion Island (South Africa) Marion Island is a remote sub-Antarctic shield volcano, part of the Prince Edward Islands, around 1,800 km southeast of Cape Town. Nobody lives there except a rotating team of researchers at the weather station. It has erupted in the early 2000s, and it’s a good reminder that Africa’s volcanic list doesn’t end at the equator. For the other volcanic sites in South Africa and their last recorded activity, see [Active Volcanoes in South Africa](https://33travels.com/active-volcanoes-in-south-africa/). ## Famous but not active A few of Africa’s best-known mountains show up on “active volcano” lists. They don’t belong. - **Kilimanjaro (Tanzania):** dormant. Its last major activity was hundreds of thousands of years ago, though gas still seeps from the summit crater. - **Mount Kenya:** extinct. Glaciers and erosion have carved the old volcanic plug into the jagged peaks climbers see today. - **Mount Elgon (Uganda/Kenya):** extinct, with a huge eroded caldera. - **Karisimbi and Visoke (Rwanda/DR Congo):** dormant Virunga volcanoes, famous for gorilla trekking, not eruptions. - **Mount Meru (Tanzania):** dormant, with its last eruption in the early 1900s. ## Can you visit them? Some, yes. Some, no. - **Nyiragongo:** hiking tours to the crater rim and lava lake have run through Virunga National Park, but access depends on security conditions in eastern DR Congo and on the volcano’s status after the 2021 eruption. Check the park’s current advice before planning. - **Erta Ale:** reached by organized tour from Mekele, with armed escorts and camping near the summit. The Afar region has had security problems, so travel only with a reputable operator. - **Ol Doinyo Lengai:** climbed overnight with a local guide, from a base near [Lake Natron](https://33travels.com/lakes-in-tanzania/). - **Mount Cameroon:** hikeable in two to four days from Buea with a guide. - **Fogo:** the easiest of all. Hikes to Pico do Fogo and across the caldera floor are routine. For all of them, current activity matters more than the calendar. ## How to check current status The [Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program](https://volcano.si.edu/) publishes a weekly report and searchable eruption histories for every volcano on this list. For ash that affects flights, see the advisories from the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, which covers Africa. For eastern DR Congo specifically, the Goma Volcano Observatory is the local monitoring authority. If a source says a volcano is active, look for the date. That single detail is what separates a reliable list from the ones that mix up Fogo’s 1995 and 2014 eruptions.