Akobo fire, 2 May 2026 Akobo, Wantawo
The fire started on 2 May 2026 in Akobo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,280 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 482th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 141 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 2,280ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 2 May 2026 – 4 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 2 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 97
- in a single hotspot: 43 MW
- Average daily power
- 208MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 600 ha in 2016, 1,645 ha in 2017, 2,656 ha in 2018, 669 ha in 2019, 938 ha in 2020, 1,456 ha in 2021, 1,815 ha in 2022, 943 ha in 2023, 1,349 ha in 2024, 1,891 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,295 ha that had burned before.
- 1,815 ha Wantawo fire, March 2022 48,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,784 ha Jore fire, December 2018 15,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,211 ha Wantawo fire, January 2017 7,235 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,160 ha Wantawo fire, April 2021 4,092 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 873 ha Wantawo fire, March 2018 2,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 600 ha Akobo fire, January 2016 3,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 434 ha Wantawo fire, February 2017 3,673 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 357 ha Wantawo fire, March 2025 2,261 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Akobo where it started1,584 ha reached on 2 May0.7 %
-
711 ha reached on 2 May0.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 6 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 97Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Akobo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 May 2026 and 4 May 2026: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,280 hectares (22.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Akobo (1,584 ha, 0.7 %); Wantawo (711 ha, 0.8 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ethiopia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.