Houthis, Yemen government agree to exchange nearly 3,000 prisoners

MUSCAT – Yemen’s Houthis and its internationally-recognised government on Dec 23 agreed to a prisoner swop that includes nearly 3,000 people, including seven Saudis – making it the largest such exchange should it succeed.

The breakthrough deal came after nearly a fortnight of discussions between Yemeni officials from both sides in Muscat, the capital of neighbouring Oman, a key mediator in the conflict that has lasted for over a decade.

Officials gave few details about the next steps, with observers pressing both sides to follow through to bolster peace efforts.

Mr Majed Fadhail, a member of the government delegation for the prisoner swop talks, said they had agreed with the Houthis on a new exchange that would see “thousands” of war prisoners released.

He told AFP that this would be “the largest” such deal, adding that “the exchange of lists and names will take place from now and no later than in one month”.

Abdulqader al-Mortada, a negotiator with the Houthi delegation, said in a statement on X 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 theirs, including seven Saudis and 23 Sudanese”.

Two of the seven Saudi nationals are air force pilots, Mr Fadhail told AFP, adding that Mr Mohamed Qahtan would also be among the released.

Mr Qahtan, a prominent Sunni Islamist leader aligned with the Saudi government, has been held by the Houthis since 2015.

‘Effective implementation’

Mr Mohammed al-Basha of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report told AFP that “while today’s developments represent a constructive step toward confidence-building between the Houthis and the anti-Houthi government coalition, significant challenges remain”.

“Nevertheless, this exchange is still likely to be the largest prisoner of war swop to date,” he added.

Challenges include verifying detainee lists and agreeing on a realistic timeline for the exchange, as well as bitter rivalries and divisions within the government itself, he said.

In December, Yemeni separatists that are part of the government swept through swathes of the country, expelling other government forces and their allies in a move that threatened to further divide the anti-Houthi camp.

International organisations expressed cautious optimism following the announcement of the deal.

United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg in a statement welcomed the agreement as “a positive and meaningful step that will hopefully ease the suffering of detainees and their families across Yemen”.

But he said its “effective implementation will require the continued engagement and cooperation of the parties, coordinated regional support and sustained efforts to build on this progress toward further releases”.

The International Committee for the Red Cross called for its swift implementation and said they were ready to assist in the transfer of prisoners.

UN rights chief Volker Turk meanwhile urged the rebels to “immediately and unconditionally” release dozens of UN staffers detained in the country in the past few years.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels control the capital Sanaa and much of the north, which includes most population centres, while the internationally-recognised government holds much of the south.

The war has since 2015 pitted the Iran-backed rebels against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.

The conflict has been effectively frozen since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022, which has held despite expiring.

But talks to bring the conflict to a formal end have yet to result in a deal.

The conflict in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly, with large numbers taken as prisoners on both sides.

A reconciliation deal between the warring parties’ main foreign patrons, Riyadh and Tehran, in early 2023 saw nearly 900 prisoners released in April that year. AFP