Methodology
Overview of ACLED’s data enhancement projects and known data limitations
Consult this page to stay up-to-date on known data limitations and upcoming enhancements.
ACLED is committed to continuously enhancing its data’s quality, comprehensiveness, and usability. This means not only expanding and improving coverage, but also clearly explaining how the data should be interpreted. To that end, ACLED conducts rigorous reviews of both the data and the reporting environment to ensure that the data remain reliable and accurately reflect on-the-ground trends. ACLED proactively seeks out new sources to capture emerging trends and areas not fully covered by current data. These reviews allow ACLED to:
- Address changes in source reliability and gaps in reporting, especially in response to evolving conflict dynamics.
- Inform users when gaps or other data limitations are identified in a timely manner.
Users are encouraged to regularly consult this page to stay up-to-date on known data limitations and upcoming enhancements. The publication of this list is in line with ACLED’s commitment to promoting transparency and clarity about its processes to help users make better-informed analyses based on the data.
(Click the column headers to sort the table.)
| Region | Country | Project Description | Time period | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | Benin | Loss of key partner data in June 2025.The partner provided data particularly for the northern departments (Alibori, Atacora, Borgou), which contributed to ~65% of events in Benin. Alternatives are being explored. | Loss of key source from Jun. 2025 - present | Persistent data gap |
| Africa | Democratic Republic of Congo | A key eastern DRC source, which had been contributing to ~25% of events in the DRC, went offline in November 2023. Coverage has been affected since then. ACLED is expanding source coverage and exploring local networks to replace it. | Loss of key source from Nov. 2023 - present | Persistent data gap |
| Africa | Ethiopia | Launch of local networks in Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and other regions starting June 2025. These fill rural/peripheral gaps (~6% of incidents/month are from local networks). Data before June 2025 do not include this additional coverage. | Local network data unavailable prior to Jun. 2025 | Persistent data gap |
| Africa | Nigeria | Loss of key partner data (Risk and Strategic Management, Corp) on 6 March 2025 due to USAID funding cuts. Data from this partner contributed to ~20% of events in Nigeria (notably in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, and Borno). ACLED has developed replacement local networks to cover the data gap. Data for the period between March and September 2025 is still being processed and has not yet been published, for more, see "Data Update: Enhanced coverage in Nigeria using local information networks." | Loss of key partner data from Mar. 2025 - present | Persistent data gap |
| Africa | Somalia | Loss of partner data in September 2024, especially affecting Lower Shabelle. A local network began supplying information in June 2025, increasing weekly events by ~50%. Data before June 2025 do not include this additional coverage. For more, see "Data Update: Enhanced coverage in Somalia using local information networks." | Coverage impacted (decrease in events) from Sep. 2024 - Jun. 2025 | Persistent data gap |
| Latin America | Brazil | Incorporation of data from media sources Bahia Extremo Sul, Portal Chico Sabe Tudo, and Alo Juca to enhance coverage in Bahia from January 2018 to present. Adds ~60 events/month. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jan. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Africa | Cameroon | Loss of key partner data in December 2024 covering the Northwest and Southwest regions, resulting in a drop in events from December 2024 to 30 June 2025. A local network is backcoding events to enhance coverage for the affected coverage period. For more, see "Data Update: Enhanced coverage in Cameroon using local information networks." | Coverage impacted (decrease in events) from Dec. 2024 - Jun. 2025 | Temporary data gap |
| Latin America | Chile | Data from ACLED's partner Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social (COES) have not been fully published. Data from 1 January 2018 to 18 October 2019 and 27 November 2019 to 31 December 2023 have yet to be incorporated into the dataset, resulting in an estimated gap of ~40 events per month. Data from these periods will be incorporated at a later date. For more, see "Data Update: New partner data from COES published in ACLED's Chile dataset." | Forthcoming improvement of data from 1 Jan. 2018 - 18 Oct. 2019 and 27 Nov. 2019 - 31 Dec. 2023 | Temporary data gap |
| Africa | Democratic Republic of Congo | Incorporation of updated data from the Kivu Security Tracker project from January 2018 to January 2023 to improve coverage in Ituri, Sud-Kivu, and Nord-Kivu. Adds ~70 events/month. This enhancement will be published in a forthcoming release. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jan. 2018 - Jan. 2023 | Temporary data gap |
| Latin America & Caribbean | Ecuador | Gang violence data for Ecuador is not currently available prior to January 2023. Historical data for January 2022 to December 2022 is being back-coded to be incorporated at a later date. For more, see "Data update: Gang violence events and disaggregated locations in Guayaquil and Quito are newly added to the Ecuador dataset." | Gang violence data not yet available prior to Jan. 2023 | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Myanmar | Incorporation of data from Free Burma Rangers to address gaps in coverage of explosions/remote violence events in Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, Shan, and Bago states. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jan. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Myanmar | Incorporation of data from Mizzima News to enhance coverage of Myanmar from 2021 to present. Adds ~ 120 events/month. This enhancement will be published in a forthcoming release. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jan. 2021 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Pakistan | Incorporation of data from several new sources to improve coverage of disappearances and kidnappings in Balochistan province from January 2018 to December 2023. Data from January 2024 to present have already been incorporated. Adds ~35 events/month. This enhancement will be published in a forthcoming release. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jan. 2018 - Dec. 2023 | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Myanmar | Data from ACLED partner Myanmar Peace Monitor has not been incorporated into the dataset from July 2020 to present. This gap will be filled in an upcoming data release. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jul. 2020 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Europe & Central Asia | Ukraine | Data on air- and drone strikes in occupied regions before August 2024 have not been fully incorporated into the dataset. Data covering February 2022 through July 2024 will be published at a later date. For more, see "Data Update: Incorporation of data from new sources in ACLED’s Russia-Ukraine dataset." | Forthcoming improvement of air- drone strike data coverage from Feb. 2022 - Jul. 2024 | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Afghanistan | Data from an undisclosed partner tracking violence against civilians since April 2025 has not been incorporated into the dataset, resulting in a decrease in said events since April 2025. The data will be integrated in a forthcoming release. | Forthcoming improvement of violence against civilians data coverage from Apr. 2025 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Latin America | Brazil | Data from ACLED partner Fogo Cruzado is incorporated on a rolling delay of 1 to 3 months, contributing an average of ~95 unique events per month, along with updated information on several dozen additional events per month. The most recent three months of data will appear incomplete until the delayed reporting is published. | Data incorporated on a rolling delay of 1- 3 months | Reporting lag |
| Latin America | Colombia | Incorporation of data from UNOCHA's Humanitarian Monitor on Colombia is subject to delays of 1 to 2 months, resulting in temporary irregularities or fluctuations in observed trends. These fluctuations primarily affect political violence events involving non-state armed groups in insurgency affected states. On average, OCHA data accounts for 11% of monthly events in Colombia. | Data incorporated on a rolling delay of 1- 2 months | Reporting lag |
| Latin America | Venezuela | Data from ACLED partner FundaREDES from January 2025 onward have not been incorporated into the dataset. FundaREDES contributes an average of ~20 events per month, or ~40% of all political violence events in Venezuela. These data will be published in a forthcoming release. | Forthcoming improvement of coverage from Jan. 2025 - present | Reporting lag |
Completed projects
| Region | Country | Project Description | Time period | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia-Pacific | Myanmar | This project incorporated data from Independent Mon News Agency to fill gaps in Mon state and adds ~7 events/month. This enhancement was published in November 2024. | Data enhanced from Feb. 2021 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Africa | Democratic Republic of Congo | This project incorporated new partner data from Beni Peace Forum, covering violence in Beni territory starting from 1 March 2018. The update was published on 12 May 2025 and added over 1,100 new events. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data Update: New partner data from Beni Peace Forum published in ACLED’s Democratic Republic of Congo dataset." | Data enhanced from Mar. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Myanmar | This project incorporated data from Khit Thit Media to capture resistance group activity and protests, starting from January 2018. The update was published on 12 November 2024 and added over 15,000 events and over 13,000 fatalities. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data update: Expanded coverage of Myanmar 2018-present with Khit Thit Media." | Data enhanced from Jan. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Europe & Central Asia | Netherlands | This project incorporated data from the source AD Netherlands to improve demonstration coverage from January 2020. The update was published on 23 April 2025 and added almost 1,000 events. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data Update: Incorporation of data from new source in ACLED’s Netherlands dataset." | Data enhanced from Jan. 2020 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Middle East | Palestine-Israel | This project incorporated data from News 0404, a Hebrew language source, into the Palestine and Israel datasets from 1 January 2018. The update was published on 24 February 2025 and added over 1,700 new events to the dataset. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data update: Incorporation of data from new source in ACLED’s Palestine and Israel datasets." | Data enhanced from Jan. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Philippines | This project incorporated data from the sources Minda News and Northern Dispatch to capture Muslim separatist activity and Rido-related violence ahead of the 2025 elections, starting from January 2018. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data update: Incorporation of data from new sources in ACLED’s Philippines dataset." | Data enhanced from Jan. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Africa | South Sudan | This project incorporated data from Risk and Strategic Management, Corp from 9 December 2020 to address media restrictions and communication gaps. The update added nearly 4,500 new events to the dataset. The project was published on 28 January 2025, and this source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data update: Incorporation of Risk and Strategic Management, Corporation’s data into ACLED’s South Sudan dataset." | Data enhanced from Dec. 2020 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Europe & Central Asia | Ukraine | This project incorporated data from multiple military sources to improve Russia-Ukraine war coverage from February 2022. The project was published on 17 Jun 2025, and a total of 13,802 new events and at least 24,000 fatalities were added to the dataset. These sources are now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data update: Addition of new sources in ACLED’s Ukraine dataset." | Data enhanced from Feb. 2022 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Middle East | Palestine-Israel | This project incorporated data from the Quds News Network. This source contributed mainly to "Violence against civilians" and "Mob violence" events. Historical data from this source covering the period of January 2018 to October 2023 was published on 3 November 2025. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data update: Integration of historical data from source Quds News Network in ACLED’s Israel and Palestine datasets." | Data enhanced from Jan 2018 - Oct. 2023 | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Afghanistan | This project incorporated data from an undisclosed partner to improve coverage of violence against civilians since the Taliban takeover. The project added over 500 new events starting from September 2021, and was published on 28 December 2024. For more, see "Data update: Incorporation of data from partner organization in ACLED’s Afghanistan dataset." | Data enhanced from Sep. 2021 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Africa | Sudan | This project incorporated data from ACLED partner Insights. It covered demonstrations and conflict/security incidents nationwide from January 2024 to August 2025. This project was published on 14 October 2025. For more, see "Data update: Integration of new partner data in ACLED’s Sudan dataset." | Data enhanced from Jan. 2024 - Aug 2025 | Temporary data gap |
| Asia-Pacific | Myanmar | This project incorporated data from BBC Burmese to restore coverage and fix a brief gap in data from March through July 2021, and from March 2023 to present. Data from August 2021 through February 2023 remains missing and will not be retrospectively added, resulting in a data gap of ~8 events per month for that period. This source is now part of regular real-time coverage. For more, see "Data Update: Integration of data from BBC Burmese in ACLED’s Myanmar dataset." | Data enhanced from Mar. 2021 - July 2023, and from Mar. 2023 - present | Persistent data gap |
| Latin America & Caribbean | Haiti | This project incorporated data from three new sources, Juno 7, Trip Foumi, and Amerique Info 7, covering data from 1 January 2018 to present. The project was published on 17 November 2025. For more, see "Data update: Integration of data from new sources in ACLED’s Haiti dataset." | Data enhanced from Jan. 2018 - present | Temporary data gap |
| Middle East | Yemen | This project incorporated new data from an undisclosed source covering the period from 2 October 2022 to present. For more, see "Data Update: Expanded Coverage of Political Violence in Yemen." | Data enhanced from Oct. 2022 - present | Temporary data gap |