Up to 80,000 people live in the affected areas.
The Horn of Africa region was hit by a series of earthquakes on Saturday, the strongest of which had a magnitude of 5.8. No victims have yet been reported, AFP reported, writes TASR.
AFP specified that the intense seismic activity was manifested in the predominantly rural areas of the Ethiopian federal states of Afar, Oromia and Amhara. According to Ethiopian authorities, around 80,000 people live in the affected regions. The most vulnerable of them were moved to a temporary shelter. The authorities did not state the number of evacuees.
The earthquakes damaged houses and threatened to trigger a volcanic eruption on the dormant Dofan volcano in Afar, according to AFP. The clouds of smoke stopped coming out of the crater, but the residents in the vicinity left their homes in panic.
Earthquakes are common in Ethiopia due to its location along the Great Rift Valley, one of the most seismically active areas in the world. Experts said the tremors and eruptions are caused by the expansion of tectonic plates beneath the Great Rift Valley.
