Approximately 20,000 people have been killed this year alone, making it the second-deadliest year on record.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war since 2015, a report says.

The death toll includes more than 12,000 civilians killed in attacks directly targeting civilians, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

The situation in Yemen has been described by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Matthias Sulz, ACLED’s Yemen Research Manager, said: “These estimates are only “the least bad best guess” — the true toll is likely far higher.

“Despite secret talks between Saudia Arabia and the Houthis, fighting continues on multiple fronts across the country… If they come to an agreement, deadly clashes may subside but Yemen’s civil war will carry on. In either case, fatalities will continue to mount.”

Yemen’s civil war began when Iran-aligned rebels sparked an uprising in the north and centre of the country in 2014, toppling the internationally-recognised government in the capital of Sanaa.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led airstrikes in an attempt to prevent the Houthi rebels from overrunning the south of Yemen.

Civilians suffered most in the airstrikes, which have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties.

In response, Houthi rebels have targeted vessels in the Red Sea and used drones and missiles to attack Saudi Arabia.

This year is already the second-deadliest on record, with approximately 20,000 people killed.

April was the most lethal month so far, during which over 2,500 people were reported killed.

People gather at the site of an airstrike launched by the Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa, Yemen

The deadliest year was 2018, when 30,800 people were left dead.

Much of the civilian-targeted violence has been centred in the provinces of Dhale, Hodeida, Hajjah and Taiz.

The most violent province was Taiz, where over 19,000 people were reported killed since 2015, largely due to a four-year siege by the Houthi rebels.

However coalition airstrikes were responsible for around 67% of civilian deaths across all provinces, causing more than 8,000 deaths.

ACLED said the number of Saudi-led airstrikes are at an all-time low, but a strike on a Dhamar prison facility that killed at least 130 detainees has contributed to a recent rise in deaths.

Dr Elisabeth Kendall, a professor at the University of Oxford who has written extensively on the conflict of Yemen, told Sky News the findings are a “wake-up call”.

“The figures don’t even include indirect knock-on effects of the war,” she explained.

Dr Kendall also warned that the country faces an even bigger problem ahead.

“The longer the war goes on, the more people’s lives are touched by it.

Red Crescent medics at the site of Saudi-led air strikes

“That makes it increasingly difficult to negotiate solutions that stand a chance of translating into actual peace on the ground.”

The data includes deaths from airstrikes, shelling and ground battles, as well as militant bombings and violent protests.

However it does not include those who have died from factors such as starvation and disease.

ACLED is partly funded by the US State Department and Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and builds its database on news reports from Yemeni and international media and international agencies.

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