Yemeni government, Houthis agreement to exchange at least 1,000 prisoners

The Yemeni government and the Houthis agreed to exchange about a thousand prisoners on both sides, in a first stage, which is expected to take place within the next two weeks, according to a Yemeni official, with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

28 September, 2020 05:32

NEWS DESK

The office of the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, confirmed in a statement that representatives of the Yemeni government and the Houthis agreed to the immediate release of a first group consisting of 1081 detainees and prisoners, according to the agreed lists of names.

This came at the conclusion of the fourth meeting of the supervisory committee concerned with the implementation of the prisoner and detainee exchange agreement that began a week ago in Switzerland.

Griffiths commented, in a special statement to Asharq Al-Awsat via e-mail, of course, that he is “happy with this achievement”, and he explained that by saying: "This critical humanitarian issue is a priority, and I hope the unprecedented release will provide immediate relief to more than a thousand Yemeni families."

The UN envoy, who enjoys remarkable international and regional support, hopes that "the two parties will move quickly to implement and start planning for more releases, and this would help build the confidence required to make progress in other operations."

T/S

ANHA