Yemen’s warring factions agreed on Tuesday to release thousands of prisoners in what would be the largest swap since civil war erupted in the country more than a decade ago.
The deal provides for the exchange of about 2,900 prisoners between the Houthi rebels and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, according to Abdul Qader al-Mortada, the Houthi official overseeing prisoner affairs.
“We signed an agreement with the other party to implement a broad exchange deal involving 1,700 of our prisoners in exchange for 1,200 of their prisoners, including 7 Saudis and 23 Sudanese,” he said in a statement on social media.
The deal was brokered by the United Nations and the Red Cross after 12 days of closed-door talks in Oman, a leading mediator in the Yemen civil war.
The war, which began in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, has largely settled into a stalemate since a 2022 truce. Yemen was already one of the poorest countries in the world before the war began, and the fighting has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and exacerbated a dire humanitarian crisis.
The war drew the involvement of other countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More recently, an armed separatist group backed by the Emirates orchestrated a rapid military takeover of southern Yemen from the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
The issue of prisoner releases is widely viewed as a test of the commitment of both sides to achieving a peaceful resolution.
The swap, if successful, would be the largest since April 2023, when about 900 prisoners were released.
In a statement, Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, hailed the agreement as a “positive and meaningful” step but cautioned that success would depend on the parties’ swiftly identifying the specific prisoners to be released.
Past negotiations have frequently stumbled over the final list of names, as both sides tried to use high-profile captives as leverage.
Christine Cipolla, head of the Red Cross delegation in Yemen, said in a statement, “It is essential that they uphold their commitments under the agreement and swiftly identify the detainees who are to be released.”
The Houthis have conducted a series of arrest raids against Yemeni aid workers for international organizations operating in areas they control. On Thursday, the Houthis detained another 10 local U.N. staff members in their latest raid.
None of the 69 U.N. personnel currently held would be included in the coming swaps because they are part of separate talks, according to officials close to the discussions. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters in the closed-door negotiations.
While the internationally recognized government holds mostly captured Houthi combatants, rights groups say that Houthi-run prisons are filled with civilians being held as bargaining chips.
Humanitarian activists have long argued that the Houthis use the detainees to extract political and economic concessions from the international community.
The Houthis have in the past accused Yemeni U.N. employees and aid workers of being spies. A spokesman for the Houthis did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the latest swap deal.
Ismaeel Naar is an international reporter for The Times, covering the Gulf states. He is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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