Saudi coalition transfers Yemeni prisoners

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

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen announced last week that it would release 163 prisoners to its rivals — the Iran-backed Houthi rebels — 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 eightyear civil war.

The Houthis however, denied that most were war detainees. In a statement, the rebels’ prisoner affairs body said that only five of the group were prisoners of war. Among the returned were Yemeni fishermen and nine foreigners of African nationalities who had no affiliation with the Houthis, it added.

Abdel Malak al-Ajery, a member of the Houthi body known as the National Delegation, tweeted that the men who were returned were Yemeni labourers who were arrested while working in Saudi. He did not offer any evidence to back up his claim.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which facilitated the repatriation, said in a statement that it had interviewed the detainees before they travelled to verify their identities and confirm that their wish was to return to Yemen.

It was unclear how the prisoners would make their way from Aden back home, to rebel-held north Yemen. Aden, in the country’s south, is controlled by Yemen’s internationally recognized government.