Saudi-led coalition frees over 100 Yemeni rebels in ‘peace gesture’

ADEN: Three planes carrying 117 Yemeni prisoners held by the Saudi-led coalition landed on Friday in the southern port city of Aden as a truce between the country’s warring parties entered its second month, the International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The coalition said last month it would release 163 prisoners from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group who fought against Saudi Arabia — in support of a ceasefire agreement between the warring sides. The agreement, brokered by the United Nations, aims to pave the way to an end of Yemen’s 8-year civil war.

The official Saudi Press Agency said on Twiter that all 163 had been flown to Yemen. Earlier in the day it had said the process would involve “three stages of air transport of prisoners” to Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden.

The coalition said 108 detainees were flown from Saudi Arabia to the southern city of Aden, where Yemen’s Saudi-backed government is based, and nine to the Houthi-held capital Sanaa. The ICRC in a statement confirmed that 117 had been repatriated. The Houthis said they were in contact with the ICRC.

The coalition said 37 prisoners were taken by land across the Saudi-yemen border. It said nine “foreign fighters” were being handed over to their embassies, Saudi state media reported, without specifying their nationalities.

The ICRC, which facilitated the repatriation, said in a statement that it had interviewed the detainees before they traveled to verify their identities and confirm that their wish was to return to Yemen.

A Yemeni government official told Reuters the Houthis had refused to take those flown to Aden. Earlier this month, the head of the Houthis’ prisoner affairs commitee said the list of detainees included people “unknown to us and who are not among our prisoners.”

The Houthi movement said it welcomed the freeing of any Yemenis but called for coordination with its authorities, adding that the group has freed 400 prisoners of war this year.

“We are pleased to see that humanitarian considerations are being prioritised for the sake of the families,” said Katharina Ritz, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said in a statement.

FOOTAGE: Saudi state media footage purported to show released prisoners, in white robes and holding white roses, aboard an ICRC aircrat and then disembarking in Aden. Their identities could not be independently verified.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis ater they ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa in late 2014.

The warring parties agreed on a two-month truce that began on April 2 in the first major breakthrough in years under Un-led efforts to end the war that has killed tens of thousands and caused a dire humanitarian crisis.

They had also been discussing a potential prisoner swap under the auspices of the United Nations involving 1,400 Houthi prisoners and 823 coalition prisoners, including 16 Saudis. The last major prisoner exchange, involving around 1,000 detainees, took place in 2020.

The truce, which went into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide ceasefire in Yemen in six years. It came amid concerted international and regional efforts to find a setlement to a conflict that has devastated the Arab world’s poorest country and pushed it to the brink of famine. But the full agreement has yet to be implemented.

A renewable two-month truce that went into effect in early April has provided a rare respite from violence in much of the country, and has seen oil tankers begin arriving at the rebel-held port of Hodeida, potentially easing fuel shortages in Sanaa and elsewhere.

The truce also involved a deal to resume commercial flights out of Sanaa’s airport for the first time in six years and to open main roads leading into the besieged governmentheld city of Taez — though neither step has been taken so far.

The United Nations on Wednesday demanded the immediate release of two staff members held by Houthi rebels in Yemen since November, saying their whereabouts remained unknown.

“As families across Yemen gathered to mark Eid Al Fitr this year, UNESCO Director-general Audrey Azoulay and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet urged the immediate release of two of their staff members who have been detained since early November last year in Sanaa,” their offices said in a joint statement.

They said that despite repeated assurances dating back to November that they would be freed straight away, “their whereabouts remain unknown” and their offices are “deeply concerned” about their well-being.

Azoulay and Bachelet urged the Huthis to release them “without further delay.”

“Under international law, UN staff are accorded privileges and immunities, which are essential to the proper discharge of their official functions,” the joint statement added.