One hundred and four prisoners of war returned to Yemen on Monday from Saudi Arabia, following a major exchange of 869 detainees over the weekend that has revived hopes for peace, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
Two ICRC planes, each carrying 48 prisoners, left for Sanaa, the capital of Yemen in the hands of the Houthi rebels since 2014, while eight other detainees boarded for Aden, the big city in the south where the Yemeni government sits, on board of a third flight.
This "unilateral" operation is independent of the prisoner exchange carried out between Friday and Sunday, ICRC spokeswoman Jessica Moussan told AFP.
“We welcome this initiative and are happy to see that humanitarian considerations are taken into account in order to reunite families,” she said.
The exchange of detainees took place as part of an agreement reached in March in Switzerland between the Yemeni government, supported by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthi rebels, close to Iran.
It is the largest since the release of more than 1,000 prisoners in October 2020, and comes amid growing hopes for peace in a conflict that has plunged Yemen into a deep humanitarian crisis, left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced, according to the UN.
The spokeswoman said the ICRC provided air transport and logistical support, and organized interviews with the released detainees.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki confirmed the new releases, stressing that they "complete" the prisoner exchange.
This "extension of previous humanitarian initiatives" aims to "stabilize" the truce and create "an atmosphere of dialogue", said Mr. Maliki, quoted by the official Saudi press agency SPA.
The release of 104 prisoners, a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, brings to 973 the number of detainees released since Friday.
A UN-brokered six-month truce that began in April 2022 was not renewed when it expired in October, but the situation remained calm on the ground, offering respite to the population.
Last week, a Saudi delegation, accompanied by Omani mediators, traveled to Sanaa for talks aimed at reviving the truce and laying the foundations for a more durable ceasefire.
Hopes for peace in Yemen have been revived by the unexpected rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which announced in March its intention to restore diplomatic relations after seven years of rupture.
17/04/2023 13:03:39 - Ryad (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
