This is a step that suggests hope for peace after eight years of war in Yemen. A vast prisoner exchange operation began on Friday, April 14, in the country, between enemy camps. An operation which takes place in a context of regional detente, while a peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels should soon be announced.
“The first plane left Sanaa” as part of the exchange, Jessica Moussan, media relations officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which oversees the operation. The plane, departing from the capital, controlled by Houthi rebels, is heading for Aden, where the government is temporarily based.
At the end of March, the government recognized by the international community and the Houthi rebels had reached an agreement in Bern to exchange more than 880 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese. The last operation of this magnitude dates back to October 2020, when more than 1,000 prisoners were released in 48 hours.
Hundreds of thousands dead
Neighboring Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support pro-government forces against the Houthis, rebels backed by Iran, who in eight years of conflict have seized large swathes of northern and the west of this country, the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia is now trying to extricate itself from a conflict in which it is bogged down, which at the time promised the American administration of Barack Obama that it would only take six weeks to drive out the rebels capital and restore the “legitimate government” that took over Yemen in 2012.
The war there has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced, in a context of epidemics, lack of drinking water and famine. More than three-quarters of the population depend on international aid, which nevertheless continues to decline.
The prisoner exchange process is to take place over three days in various parts of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the ICRC said in a statement, saying it hopes “these releases provide momentum for a broader political solution”. .
The Bern agreement had been concluded following an unexpected warming of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two Gulf heavyweights who oppose each other on various issues, and sometimes even by intervening camps in the conflicts. of the Middle East, including that of Yemen.
On Thursday, a rare Saudi diplomatic delegation left Sanaa with a “preliminary agreement” of a truce with the Houthis and the promise of “further talks” around the points of disagreement, according to a rebel official, who requested anonymity.
