Indonesia Evacuates Thousands on Flores Island After Volcano Spews Clouds of Ash 

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews hot lava in Flores Timur, Nusa Tenggara, Timur province on January 11, 2024. (AFP)
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews hot lava in Flores Timur, Nusa Tenggara, Timur province on January 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Indonesia Evacuates Thousands on Flores Island After Volcano Spews Clouds of Ash 

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews hot lava in Flores Timur, Nusa Tenggara, Timur province on January 11, 2024. (AFP)
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews hot lava in Flores Timur, Nusa Tenggara, Timur province on January 11, 2024. (AFP)

Indonesia has evacuated about 6,500 people on the island of Flores after Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano spewed thick clouds of brownish ash for the past days, authorities said on Monday.

No casualties or major damage have been reported so far.

The eruptions in East Nusa Tenggara province are part of hot gas spills that have become more frequent in recent days. The 1,584-meter (5,197 foot) mountain is one of the “twin volcanoes” — the Lewotobi Laki-laki and Lewotobi Perempuan — in the Flores Timur district.

The volcano has erupted 40 times since Sunday, with columns of hot clouds rising 500-1,500 meters (1,600-4,900 feet) into the air.

Residents in nearby villages were taken in by relatives or brought to evacuation centers as authorities raised the volcano’s alert status to the highest level last Tuesday.

Officials urge the local community, as well as visitors and tourists, to stay away from a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) radius around the eruption zone and be aware of the potential for cold lava surging into rivers upstream from the peak in case of intense rain.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia’s Mount Marapi erupted again on Sunday, for the second time since December, spewing smoke and ash high into the air, but no casualties were reported. At least 100 residents were evacuated there since Friday.



Oil Washes up on Russia’s Black Sea Coast after Tankers Damaged, Governor Says

A still image taken from a handout video released by the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation shows a damaged tanker in the Kerch Strait, Russia 16 December 2024. (Reuters / Russian Ministry Natural Resources, Environment handout)
A still image taken from a handout video released by the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation shows a damaged tanker in the Kerch Strait, Russia 16 December 2024. (Reuters / Russian Ministry Natural Resources, Environment handout)
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Oil Washes up on Russia’s Black Sea Coast after Tankers Damaged, Governor Says

A still image taken from a handout video released by the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation shows a damaged tanker in the Kerch Strait, Russia 16 December 2024. (Reuters / Russian Ministry Natural Resources, Environment handout)
A still image taken from a handout video released by the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation shows a damaged tanker in the Kerch Strait, Russia 16 December 2024. (Reuters / Russian Ministry Natural Resources, Environment handout)

Spilled oil has washed up along "tens of kilometers" of the Russian Black Sea coast after two tankers were badly damaged in a storm at the weekend, a local governor said on Tuesday.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia's southern Krasnodar region, said on his Telegram channel that fuel oil had been found along the coast from the districts of Temryuk to Anapa.

"This morning, while monitoring the shoreline, stains of fuel oil were discovered. Oil products washed ashore for several tens of kilometers," he said.

The Volgoneft 212 tanker split in half on Sunday in the Kerch Strait, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, while the Volgoneft 239 ran aground 80 meters (87 yards) from the shore near the port of Taman in the strait.

The more than 50-year-old ships were carrying some 9,200 metric tons (62,000 barrels) of oil products in total, Russian news agency TASS reported, raising fears it could become one of the largest environmental disasters to hit the region in years.

A video posted on Zvezda TV's Telegram channel on Tuesday showed a black, oil-like substance along the coast of the Black Sea resort of Anapa, southeast of the Kerch Strait.

The video showed oil-like stains along a beach strewn with tree branches.

Meanwhile, a video broadcast by the state TV channel Vesti showed several birds covered with oil flapping their wings and struggling to fly.

Russia's Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry said on Monday that fuel oil had leaked into the sea, but the scale of the spillage was still not clear.

Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Alexander Kozlov said some of the fuel oil could have sunk to the seabed due to cold weather.

The shipping industry has raised concern in recent months over the risks and potential for collisions posed by hundreds of "shadow" tankers in open sea lanes, with little incentive for these vessels to follow cleaner shipping standards.

The Kerch Strait, which separates mainland Russia from the Moscow-annexed Crimea region, is a key route for exports of its grain and fuel products.

One member of the Volgoneft 212's crew was killed in Sunday's accident, while all 14 people on the Volgoneft 239 were rescued.