Volcano starts to erupt terribly near Africa (4)
I believe the answer is:
etna
'volcano' is the definition.
(Mount Etna)
'starts to erupt terribly near africa' is the wordplay.
'starts to' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'erupt terribly near africa' is 'ETNA'.
(Other definitions for etna that I've seen before include "Volcano in Sicily, quite neat" , "Natural hazard" , "It sometimes blows its top" , "hotly-tipped runner" , "feature spewing lava" .)