The death toll in Yemen’s war since 2015 has reached 100,000, according to a highly regarded database project that tracks the conflict.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled), which tracks confirmed fatalities in the conflict and is seen as reliable, said the figure included 12,000 civilian deaths in directly targeted attacks. It said 20,000 people had been reported killed this year, making it the second deadliest year of the war after 2018.

The conflict in the Arab world’s poorest nation began in 2014 with the takeover of northern and central Yemen by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, who drove out the internationally recognised government from the capital, Sana’a.

In March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign to prevent the rebels from overrunning the country’s south. The Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties, while the Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack Saudi Arabia and have targeted vessels in the Red Sea.

Acled, in collaboration with the Yemen Data Project, tracks reports from multiple sources in an attempt to cross-check claims and provide a reliable minimum tally of deaths directly attributable to violence.

The group noted a decline in “conflict events” since March, primarily driven by a drop in shelling and airstrikes, although it said the number of battles had not decreased.

April was the most lethal month of this year to date, with more than 2,500 reported fatalities, compared with 1,700 in September. The third quarter of 2019 had the lowest number of reported fatalities since the end of 2017, but the number of civilian casualties rose from the previous quarter, Acled said.

The most violent provinces were Taiz, Hodeida and Jawf, with more than 10,000 people reported killed in each of the regions since 2015.

Acled said direct targeting by the Saudi-led coalition and its allies had been responsible for more than 8,000 civilian deaths since 2015.

The data covers everything from airstrikes, shelling and ground battles between the various forces to militant bombings and violence at protests. The numbers do not include people who have died in humanitarian disasters caused by the war, particularly starvation. Other sources have provided higher estimates of the death toll.

Acled receives funding from the US state department and the Dutch foreign ministry.