Yemen: Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels carry out huge prisoner exchange

Warring parties in Yemen carried out a prisoner exchange in an attempt to build trust and take steps to end a devastating war. Planes carrying prisoners took off from three airports in an operation that involved about 1000 prisoners.

Saudi Arabia-led military coalition and Yemen's Houthi rebels had agreed last month in Switzerland to exchange 1081 prisoners. This is a largest swap of its kind in five-year-old conflict. The prisoner exchange was managed by International Committee of the Red Cross.

"This operation that means so much to so many families is under way," Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for the Middle East, told Reuters from Sanaa airport.

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One of the planes was carrying Saudi and Sudanese detainees and flew to Saudi Arabia. The other two flew to Sayoun airport in the government-held Hadramout region.

Two planes carrying Houthis released by the coalition departed Sayoun, and a second arrived from Abha airport in Saudi Arabia, another Reuters witness and sources said.

ICRC spokeswoman Ruth Hetherington said more than 700 prisoners had been exchanged on Thursday on a total of seven flights from Sayoun, Sanaa and Abha. More flights are scheduled over the next two days, the aid agency said.

Under the deal, the Iran-aligned Houthi group is to release around 400 people while the coalition would free 681 Houthi fighters.

Trust-Building

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the swap "brings hope for peace-building".

A coalition statement, which confirmed that the plane carrying 15 Saudis and four Sudanese had landed in Riyadh, stressed the "political and military leaderships’ keenness for the return of all POWs and detainees".
The warring sides had agreed in 2018 to swap 15,000 detainees split between both sides to pave the way for political negotiations to end the conflict, but progress has been slow.

Meanwhile, In an apparent prisoner swap, two captive Americans were freed on Wednesday as 240 supporters of the Huthi rebels in Yemen were allowed to go home. The swap involved Saudi Arabia and Oman. Announcement to this effect was made by the White House. Humanitarian worker Sandra Loli and businessman Mikael Gidada were freed by the Huthi rebels. The rebels control much of Yemen including its capital Sanaa.

The rebels also sent back the remains of a third American, Bilal Fateen, the White House said. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said Fateen died in captivity, without providing details.

The exchange of prisoners was not officially called a swap as US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien stopped short of calling it a swap. He thanked Saudi King Salman and Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tarik Al-Said "for their efforts to secure the release of our citizens."

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)