Yemen government, Houthis agree to exchange thousands of prisoners

According to the United Nations, Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Houthi group have reached a deal to free detainees, with officials from both sides estimating the figure to be close to 3, 000.

The UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said the prisoner swap agreement came after nearly two weeks of negotiations in Muscat, Oman’s capital, to end the government’s 2014 conflict with the Houthis.

Grundberg called the agreement a “positive and meaningful step” and said it will help alleviate Yemen’s detainees’ suffering and those of their families.

According to him, “effective implementation will require continued cooperation and cooperation between the parties, coordinated regional support, and sustained efforts to build on this progress toward further releases.”

In a statement on X, an official from the Houthi delegation in Muscat stated in a statement that “we signed an agreement today with the other party to implement a large-scale prisoner exchange deal involving 1, 700 of our prisoners in exchange for 1, 200 of our prisoners, including seven Saudis and 23 Sudanese.”

According to the AFP news agency, Majed Fadhail, a member of the government delegation, “thousands” of war prisoners will be released in the new exchange, according to the AFP news agency.

According to Fadhail, two of the seven Saudi nationals are pilots for the air force.

Tens of thousands of people have died as a result of the government’s and the Houthis’ war, which has largely been frozen since 2022, making one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history.