SANAA, Oct 17 (NNN-SABA) – The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels, completed the exchange of 1,056 prisoners, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen, said yesterday.
“We’re encouraged by this success and hope that it leads to more steps towards the transfer and release of more detainees,” tweeted ICRC, organiser of the two-day process of exchange of prisoners.
Those freed include 15 Saudi and four Sudanese soldiers, of the Saudi-led coalition, which backs the Yemeni government forces.
Yemeni Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik, said in a statement, that his government “will spare no efforts to get all abductees and detainees held in the Houthi militia’s jails released and ensure return to families.”
Meanwhile, Abdulkadir al-Murtada, head of the Houthi prisoner committee, was quoted by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV as saying, a total of 670 members of the Houthi group were freed.
This is the first major breakthrough in UN-led peace efforts, since the two warring parties, which have held some 15,000 detainees, reached a prisoner swap deal, in Stockholm in 2018.– NNN-SABA
