Yemen’s warring sides agree to release 2,900 detainees in war’s largest exchange

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)

CAIRO — Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels have reached an agreement to free 2,900 detainees in the largest swap during the 11-year civil war, according to Saudi and Houthi officials.

Saudi Ambassador Mohamed AlJabir said in a statement on X that the agreement was signed under the supervision of the Office of the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross, “which will enable all detainees to return to their families.”

“I commend the efforts of the negotiation teams from both sides who succeeded in reaching an understanding and concluding this agreement, which addresses a humanitarian issue and strengthens efforts to bring calm and build confidence in Yemen,” said AlJabir.

The detainees would include Saudi and Sudanese nationals, according to Abdelkader al-Murtada, the Houthi head of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and Mohamed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesperson.

Al-Murtada said on X that the deal includes freeing Yemenis along with seven Saudi and 23 Sudanese nationals.

Yemen has been torn by a civil war since 2014, when the Houthis captured Sanaa and most of the country’s north, forcing out the government. A loose regional coalition of powers -- including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- has backed the internationally recognized government in the south. The war, which has stalled over the past years, has killed more than 150,000 people, both fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The exchange deal was agreed upon in the Omani capital of Muscat in cooperation with Saudi leaders.

The UN special envoy, Hans Grundberg, said the agreement was a “positive and meaningful step that will hopefully ease the suffering of detainees and their families across Yemen.”

The agreement came after the warring parties concluded a 12-day meeting in Oman. It was the 10th meeting held to push the parties to meet their commitments under the 2018 Stockholm Agreement to release all conflict-related detainees, the special envoy’s office said in a statement.

“We are ready and determined to carry out the release, transfer and repatriation of detainees so that people separated from their families can be reunited in a safe and dignified manner,” said Christine Cipolla, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Yemen.

The ICRC played an intermediary role under the Stockholm Agreement, including carrying out the release, transfer and repatriation of more than 800 prisoners in 2023, and more than 1,000 detainees in October 2020.