Nyamuragira, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and one of the most active volcanoes in Africa, began spewing lava into the air on Sunday evening, The Washington Post reports.
Surrounded by smoke, the volcano -- located in the eastern Virunga National Park -- was still erupting but posed no threat to locals or the mountain gorillas living in the park, said Congo's Centre for Research and Natural Sciences.
The Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and, aside from being home to some of the region's world-famous (and critically endangered) Mountain Gorillas, at least 20,000 hippopotamuses live in the area.
According to NASA, which imaged the volcano using its Terra satellite, Nyamuragira last erupted in January of 2010. Even though lava flowed more than 21 miles during the eruption, the flow stayed within the park. The ash from the volcano, however, contaminated drinking water in area springs.
In 2002, the nearby Nyiragongo volcano destroyed a large portion of Goma, a city in the eastern part of the country. According to National Geographic, 350,000 residents were forced to flee when more than 15 million cubic yards of lava flowed over the city, destroying 14,000 homes.
WATCH: Incredible footage of lava flowing from Nyamuragira at top.