AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the Houthi militia resumed prisoner exchange negotiations in the Omani capital on Sunday, raising hopes for a fresh deal that may free hundreds of war detainees.
Sponsored by UN Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg and the International Committee of the Red Cross, five Yemeni government delegates and the same number of Houthi delegates met in Muscat on Sunday for the first session of negotiations to reach a new prisoner exchange agreement as rights organizations urged the end of war prisoners’ suffering.
Majed Fadhail, a spokesperson for the government delegation, told Arab News that the Yemeni government seeks to achieve a deal that would lead to the release of all of the abductees held by the Houthis, including prominent politician Mohammed Qahtan.
“Our main demand is for the unconditional release of all prisoners and abductees,” Fadhail said.
Abdulkader Al-Murtada, head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, said upon his arrival in Muscat on Saturday that he hoped this round of talks would be fruitful and lead to a new agreement.
“May God help us to resolve this humanitarian issue,” he said in a post on X.
More than 800 inmates were freed in April 2023 after negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthis. Another successful round of discussions between the two parties resulted in the release of 1,000 detainees in October 2020.
The Yemeni government has previously said that it would boycott discussions with the Houthis unless they free Mohammed Qahtan or allow his family to contact or visit him.
On the other side, the Houthis have accused the Yemeni government of impeding the fulfillment of the agreed-upon term of a previous round of prisoner exchange discussions, which included trading visits to each other’s prisons.
At the same time, the Geneva-based SAM human rights organization and the Mothers of Abductees Association, which represents thousands of female relatives of war prisoners, issued a joint appeal to the Yemeni government and the Houthis in Muscat to reach an agreement to release all prisoners and reunite them with their families. They also appealed to international mediators to put pressure on both sides to release prisoners.
“The suffering of captives, abductees and their families ought to be prioritized. This is more than a political problem; it is a humanitarian one that impacts people’s lives and dignity,” the two rights groups said.
The war in Yemen started about a decade ago when Houthis captured the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and eventually put Yemen's former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi under house arrest.
The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen intervened militarily in Yemen in March 2015, tipping the balance of power in favor of the Yemeni government and allowing its troops to halt the Houthi advances while also seizing control of more than 70 percent of Yemeni territory.
The Houthis still dominate Yemen’s highly populated areas, including Sanaa and Ibb.
The resumption of prisoner swap talks on Sunday came as two Yemeni government forces were killed and seven others injured in a Houthi attack in the western province of Hodeidah.
A local military officer told Arab News that the Houthis assaulted the government’s Giants Brigades troops in Hodeidah’s Hays district on Sunday morning, killing two soldiers and injuring seven, in the latest round of military escalation by the Houthis across the country.
The officer talked on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media.
The Houthi attack in Hodeidah occurred less than a day after Yemen’s army said that it had killed four Houthis, including a field commander, while repelling a Houthi attack in the southern province of Taiz.
