Yemen peace talks begin deal to free 5,000 prisoners

RIMBO, SWEDEN— Yemen’s warring sides agreed to a prisoner swap Thursday, sitting in the same room together for the first time in years at UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden aimed at halting a catastrophic war that has brought the country to the brink of famine.

Hopes were high that the talks wouldn’t deteriorate into further violence as in the past, and that the prisoner exchange would be an important first step toward building confidence between highly distrustful adversaries.

The three-year-old conflict pits the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who took the capital of Sanaa in 2014. The Saudis intervened the following year.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths said the two sides have signalled they are serious about de-escalating the fighting through calls they’ve made in recent weeks, and urged them to work to further reduce the violence in the Arab world’s poorest country, scene of massive civilian suffering.

The International Red Cross said it would oversee the prisoner exchange, which is expected to take weeks.

The fighting in Yemen has generated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and claimed at least 10,000 lives.

UN officials, however, have sought to downplay expecta- tions from the talks, saying they don’t foresee rapid progress toward a political settlement but hope for at least minor steps that would help to address Yemen’s worsening humanitarian crisis and prepare a framework for further negotiations. The UN food agency said Thursday it is planning to rapidly scale up food distribution to help four million people over the next two months, more than a 50 per cent rise in the number reached now — if access can be maintained.