A volcano in eastern Indonesia has erupted at least a thousand times this month, according to an official report Sunday as efforts were underway to evacuate thousands of villagers living near the rumbling mountain. Mount Ibu, on the remote island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, sent a column of smoke up to four kilometres (2.5 miles) into the sky in an eruption on Wednesday. Indonesian officials raised its alert status to the highest level and called for the evacuation of 3,000 people living in six nearby villages. It was one of 1,079 eruptions by the volcano recorded since January 1 by Indonesia’s Geological Agency, sending columns of ash reaching between 0.3 and 4 kilometres above its peak, according to the agency’s data gathered by AFP.