Yemen Data Project: Collating data on political violence and Saudi coalition air raids.

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YEMEN DATA PROJECT AIR RAIDS SUMMARY MARCH 2021

Coalition Air Raids Reach Lowest Rate Since January 2020

The number of Saudi-led coalition air raids* fell by 27% month-on-month to 91 in February, the lowest monthly rate in more than a year. No civilian deaths were recorded in February - only the fourth month in six years of the bombing campaign when no civilians were killed or injured in coalition airstrikes.

Marib remains focus of coalition bombings

Increased violence in the ground war in Marib was matched by over 50% of air raids in the month targeting the contested governorate, which has been the most heavily bombed every month since March last year. Marib is now the 5th most heavily targeted Yemeni governorate since the Saudi-led coalition air war began. A total of 2,354 air raids have been recorded in Marib since March 2015, almost one third (30%) of which were carried out in 2020.

AIR RAIDS DOWN 27% ON JANUARY 2021
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES DOWN TO ZERO FROM 1 IN JANUARY

TOTAL NUMBERS MARCH 2015 - FEBRUARY 2021
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES 18,569
AIR RAIDS 22,701

The highest number of air raids recorded in a single month remains September 2015 at 920, which was also the deadliest month in the air war when at least 756 civilians were killed.
April 2015 saw the highest number of civilian casualties (fatalities and injured) in a single month at 1,745.

In YDP's data the air raid* figure is the most conservative. The true number of individual airstrikes ranges from the minimum of 22,701 to a maximum airstrikes of 65,757 since March 2015.

FEBRUARY 2021

In February, 6% of bombings hit civilian targets** and 27% hit military targets. In 67% of air raids in February the target could not be identified. Of the 30 air raids where the target could be identified, 83% of bombings hit military targets. 17% of identifiable targets were civilian.

Of the 30 air raids where the target was identified in February 2021

3 hit residential areas.
1 hit a market place in Al-Jawf
1 hit Sana'a airport (transport infrastructure)

MOST HEAVILY BOMBED GOVERNORATES FEBRUARY 2021

MARIB: Breakdown of districts targeted

Marib continues to be the most heavily bombed governorate. Half of all Saudi-led coalition air raids in February targeted Marib. Sirwah was the most heavily bombed district in the country with 21 of the 46 air raids in the month in Marib hitting the district.

SA'ADA: Breakdown of districts targeted

The border districts of Al-Dhaher was the second most heavily bombed districts countrywide in February with 13 air raids. For the second consecutive month, 74% of all coalition bombings in the month hit Sa'ada and Marib governorates.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE DATA

Separate to our air raids data collection, as part of our work to enhance conflict monitoring and data sharing, YDP is collaborating with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project on countrywide political violence data.

This extensive monitoring effort has allowed ACLED and YDP to provide the most comprehensive coverage of political violence across Yemen.
ACLED's methodology on casualty counting differs from Yemen Data Project's air raids data. See here for more details on ACLED's methodology and coding decisions used in their data collection.

FOR MORE DETAILS AND COMMENT PLEASE CONTACT:
Iona Craig (UK) +447446598852 iona.craig@yemendataproject.org

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*Air raid refers to a single incident. One air raid incident includes all air strikes on a single location within approximately one hour and therefore may comprise multiple airstrikes. Airstrikes per air raid can vary greatly from a couple to several dozen. Read more.

**Non-military targeting may be an indication of fighting taking place in urban areas resulting in the possible change of use of buildings and/or escalated targeting of civilian sites. The dataset lists target category and subcategory for each incident, where information on the target is available. When listing permanent structures the target category refers to the original use of the target e.g. a school hit by an air raid is referred to as a school building with no further assessment made on its use at the time of the air raid, or any possible change of use over the course of the conflict.

Copyright © 2019 The Yemen Data Project. All rights reserved.

For further information on the Yemen Data Project please visit www.yemendataproject.org or contact the project's spokesperson, Iona Craig: iona.craig@yemendataproject.org

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