After a major exchange of 869 detainees over the weekend, which has revived hopes for peace, 104 prisoners of war returned to Yemen on Monday (April 17th) from Saudi Arabia, announced the International Committee of the Cross. Red (ICRC).
Two ICRC planes, each carrying 48 prisoners, left for Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, in the hands of Houthi rebels since 2014, while eight other detainees boarded for Aden, the big city in the south where the Yemeni government sits. , aboard a third flight.
This operation “unilateral” is independent of the exchange of prisoners carried out between Friday and Sunday, explained an ICRC spokeswoman, Jessica Moussan. “We welcome this initiative and are happy to see that humanitarian considerations are taken into account in order to reunite families”did she say.
Create “an atmosphere of dialogue”
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 a thousand prisoners in October 2020, and comes amid growing hopes for peace over a conflict that has plunged Yemen into a deep humanitarian crisis, caused 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.
Turki Al-Maliki, spokesman for the coalition, confirmed these new releases, stressing that they “completed” exchange of prisoners. This “extension of previous humanitarian initiatives” intended to “stabilize” the truce and to create “an atmosphere of dialogue”said Mr. Maliki, quoted by the official Saudi press agency SPA.
“Encouraging regional environment”
The release of 104 prisoners, a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-el-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, brings to 973 the number of prisoners released since Friday.
During a meeting of the Security Council on Monday, the UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grunberg, estimated by videoconference that the country had not experienced such a ” occasion “ of “put an end to this conflict for eight years”. A six-month UN-brokered truce that began in April 2022 had not been 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.
Saluting this “constructive dialogue”the UN envoy noted that a “encouraging regional environment will strengthen peace efforts”. But “The tide may still turn if the parties do not make bolder moves towards peace”he warned. “Let us have no illusions. There is still a lot of work to be done to build trust and make compromises”he insisted.
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.