Second day of prisoner exchange in Yemen concludes with the release of 357 prisoners

15 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported that a total of 357 prisoners have been released this Saturday, the second day of the prisoner exchange process between the Yemeni government and the Huthi insurgency.

“All release operations are now complete and there are a total of 357 prisoners transferred,” the ICRC explained in a message posted on Twitter. “Tomorrow we will continue facilitating the release of more prisoners,” he pointed out.

This exchange is the result of negotiations with the Saudi and Omani delegation that arrived in the country last weekend, which was a turning point in the bloody war that has been devastating the country for a decade.

A first plane has transported 120 prisoners from Abha, in Saudi Arabia, to Sanaa. Two other planes have transferred 60 prisoners from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to Moja, while another flight has taken 20 prisoners from Sanaa to Riyadh. Another flight has taken 117 prisoners from Abha to Sana’a and another flight from Moja has taken 40 prisoners to Sana’a.

On Friday, a first flight with 125 people left Aden, seat of the recognized government of Yemen, in the direction of Sanaa, under insurgent control, while another 35 people have taken the opposite route. Shortly after, another 124 people were transferred from Aden to Sanaa and 34 in the opposite direction.

The prisoner exchange, which involves the exchange of approximately 900 people, began on Friday several days late after an agreement was reached on March 20 in the Swiss capital Bern at a meeting co-chaired by the ICRC together with the office of the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg.

The war in Yemen has ended up plunging what was one of the poorest countries in the world into the worst humanitarian catastrophe at present, according to the United Nations. More than 21 million Yemenis – two thirds of the population – will need humanitarian aid this year and 17 million of them will need to receive it urgently to survive.

The conflict has left almost 380,000 dead -more than 85,000 of them children-, either due to the fighting or hunger and disease, to which four million displaced people must be added, according to data considered by the agencies of the UN.