Yemen warring parties reach prisoner swap deal: Huthis

DUBAI: Yemen’s Huthi rebels and the internationally recognised government have reached a prisoner swap deal during negotiations in Switzerland, the militants said Monday.

“An agreement has been reached to implement a (prisoner) swap” that will see more than 880 people released in total, said Abdul Qader al-Murtada, the leading Huthi delegate to the Geneva talks, according to the rebels’ Al-Masirah TV channel.

Under the agreement, the Iran-backed Huthis would release 181 detainees, including Saudi and Sudanese nationals, in exchange for 706 prisoners, said Al-Murtada, who heads the rebels’ National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs.

“The swap will be implemented after three weeks,” Al-Masirah TV quoted him as saying.

The talks in Switzerland, overseen by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), started this month after more than eight years of war.

The closed-door negotiations mark the seventh meeting aimed at implementing an agreement on prisoner exchanges reached in Sweden five years ago.

Under that deal, the sides agreed “to release all prisoners, detainees, missing persons, arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared persons, and those under house arrest”, held in connection with the conflict, “without any exceptions or conditions”.

The latest agreement comes almost a year after the Huthis said they had agreed to a prisoner swap that would see 1,400 rebels freed in exchange for 823 pro-government fighters — including 16 Saudis and three Sudanese nationals.

In 2020, more than 1,050 detainees were released following an agreement reached by the warring parties, according to the ICRC.