Yemen: The largest prisoner exchange deal since the coup

It is expected that the lists will be exchanged today (Tuesday) to implement the largest exchange of prisoners and abductees, between the legitimate Yemeni government and the Houthi militia. These lists include the names of those who will be handed over without specifying a date to start implementing the agreement, which the legitimate government fears that the Houthis will retract from its completion.

Government and Houthi sources reported that the agreement; carried out under the auspices of the office of the UN envoy, Hans Grundberg, will include more than 2,200 people; Among them are Nasser Mansour Hadi, brother of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, his former defense minister Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, and two relatives of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while the frequency of calls is rising to include the list of released journalists detained by the coup militias.

In the first official comment on the deal, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Rights and member of the negotiating team, Majed Fadil, explained that the agreement came as a result of consultations and discussions during the previous period under the auspices of the Office of the UN Envoy, and that it was agreed to expand the number to release 2,223 prisoners and abductees from both sides.

According to what he understood from Fadila’s tweets on Twitter; The agreement stipulates that the Houthi militia will release 800 prisoners and abductees, in exchange for the government side releasing 1,400 captured militia members from the National Army, the Southern Forces and the West Coast Forces.

Fadael stressed that the issue of prisoners and abductees was a humanitarian issue that could not be outbid. He said: “No party has the right to market that what has been accomplished was done on its own initiative; Rather, it was the result of a great effort and a long course of negotiations and consultations, under the auspices of the Office of the UN Envoy.”

With the implementation of the deal approaching, the Yemeni Minister of Information, Muammar Al-Eryani, called on the UN envoy to include the journalists: Abdul-Khaleq Omran, Tawfiq Al-Mansoori, Harith Hamid and Akram Al-Walidi, who were kidnapped in Houthi detention, as part of the exchange process between the legitimate government and the militias.