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Today, Thursday, a prisoner exchange process began between the Yemeni government and the group “Ansar Allah” (Houthis) in the largest operation since 2014, and the first group of “Houthi” prisoners began to board the plane at the airport of the Seiyun city, which is under the control of the Yemeni government, according to the “Al-Arabiya” channel. .
The spokesperson for the committee that manages the logistics side of this exchange process, explained today that their teams are present at several airports that participate in the transfer process. He added that “preparations are underway, if things go according to plan, we expect the launch process to take place in the next few hours.”
For his part, Hadi Haig, head of the Yemeni government’s Prisoner Affairs Commission, explained that the exchange of the first batch is carried out in accordance with the agreement signed by the two parties in Switzerland at the end of last September. He told Al-Arabiya that the preparations and logistical arrangements have been completed, in the presence of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross present in Sanaa, Ma’rib and Seiyun. The prisoners will be transferred in two batches from Sanaa to Seiyun and vice versa, and a batch of Houthi prisoners will be transferred from Saudi Arabia to Sanaa. As long as the 19 coalition prisoners are transferred from Sana’a to Riyadh.
Second batch tomorrow
He also indicated that the exchange process includes 480 “Houthi” prisoners today compared to 250 members of the government, while the second batch will be exchanged tomorrow, Friday, with the release of 200 “Houthi” prisoners in exchange for 251 resistance prisoners. south, and will be transferred by the airports of Sanaa and Aden.
Notably, the two sides arrived last month, under the auspices of the United Nations envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to complete the implementation of the Swiss agreement, which calls for the release of 1,081 prisoners and detainees from both sides.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is responsible for transporting the agreed release by air between Sanaa, which is under the control of the “Houthis,” and Seiyun, which is controlled by the government.
It is noteworthy that the prisoner exchange agreement, if completed within these two days, will be the UN envoy’s first real breakthrough since he assumed his mission approximately two and a half years ago, and may constitute a prelude to the release of all prisoners, as stipulated in the Stockholm Agreement in December 2019.
The exchange of 15 thousand prisoners
The two sides agreed in the Swedish talks in December 2018 to exchange 15,000 prisoners, but there have been limited exchanges since the agreement was signed.
The exchange process scheduled for today and tomorrow is considered the largest since the beginning of the Yemeni crisis.
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