Yemen – Second plane carrying released Houthi prisoners arrives in Aden
On Friday, the Legitimacy Support Coalition in Yemen released 163 Houthi prisoners of war and facilitated their return to Aden and Sana’a as part of its initiative to support peace and dialog between the Yemeni parties.
A total of 108 prisoners were transported to Aden, Yemen’s provisional capital, while 9 were transported to the Houthi-controlled city of Sana’a. 9 foreign fighters, captured while fighting alongside the Houthis, were handed over to their countries’ embassies. The coalition also transferred 37 wounded fighters overland to their home provinces in Yemen.
On Friday morning, the coalition announced the departure of the first flight carrying dozens of Houthi prisoners from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, as part of the three-phase process of transporting prisoners to Sana’a and Aden.
The International Committee of the Red Cross facilitates the transportation of more than 100 detainees from Saudi Arabia to Yemen in three aircraft.
Bashir Omar, spokesman for the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said the destination of released prisoners was determined by their place of origin, their current home, their personal wishes and security concerns to help them arrive home safely, adding that about eighty detainees had arrived in Aden on Friday afternoon.
According to Yemeni government officials in charge of prisoners of war, the prisoners who arrived in Aden will be taken by bus and car to their villages and towns, as the Houthis have refused to receive them in Sana’a.
Majed Fadhail, Yemeni Deputy Minister for Human Rights and member of a government delegation participating in negotiations on the exchange of prisoners with the militia, thanked Saudi Arabia for this humanitarian initiative and stated that the Houthis wanted to release their military leaders detained by the coalition.
“The Houthis were seeking the release of large heads and some Hashemite fighters,” Fadhail stressed, urging the Houthis to reciprocate the coalition by releasing thousands of Yemenis detained in their prisons. “I hope that this initiative will speed up the conclusion of the prisoner exchange agreement,” he added.
The latest efforts to achieve a new prisoner exchange between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government have stalled after the militia offered to exchange its government-held fighters with civilians abducted from the streets of Sanaa.
In October 2020, warring factions in Yemen exchanged more than 1,000 detainees, under UN auspices. This was the first major prisoner exchange since the war began.
The coalition’s prisoner initiative comes at a time when the international community is putting increased pressure on the Yemeni parties to comply with the current two-month UN-brokered truce, at a time when hundreds of violations have been reported, including a Houthi drone attack in Taiz.
Richard Oppenheim, the United Kingdom Ambassador to Yemen, said that the UN-brokered truce was helping to alleviate the deepening humanitarian crisis in Yemen and paving the way for peace, urging the Yemeni parties to honor their commitments to end the fighting.
“We support international calls for all parties to fulfill their truce commitments, including lifting the siege conditions imposed for years, which have created a humanitarian catastrophe for hundreds of thousands of people in and around Taiz, and reopening Sanaa airport,” he tweeted.
The French Embassy in Yemen expressed concern about the Houthi siege of Taiz and delays in opening Sana’a airport. It urged the various factions to work in good faith to alleviate the suffering of Yemenis throughout the country by respecting the truce.
“After more than seven years of war, everything must be done to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, whether in Taiz or elsewhere in the country. For this, all parties must respect the truce for the good of all Yemenis,” the embassy tweeted.
The Yemeni government said that the Houthis had committed three hundred and forty-one truce violations between 30 April and 4 May, during the Eid holiday, by attacking and firing missiles at government-controlled towns and army positions in Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf, Dhale, Saada, Abyan and Hodeida.
On Wednesday, at least 10 civilians were injured when a Houthi-launched drone bomb hit a government security center in the southern city of Taiz.
