The Yemeni warring parties have conducted the largest prisoner swap of the war on Thursday, under a deal signed in Switzerland last month.
Planes carrying prisoners exchanged by the warring parties in Yemen took off from three airports, in an operation to return about 1,000 men home across the front lines, Reuters reported, citing the International Committee of the Red Cross .
تحركت صباح اليوم 5 من طائراتنا من مطارات #أبها و #صنعاء و #سيئون ضمن عملية نقل وإطلاق سراح المحتجزين السابقين التي اتفقت عليها أطراف النزاع في #اليمن.
— ICRC Yemen (@ICRC_ye) October 15, 2020
The first batch of Yemeni army prisoners has arrived at Sana’a International Airport, while the second batch will arrive on Friday.
According to the head of the Committee on Prisoners’ Affairs, Abdul Qadir Al-Mortadha, so far, three planes carrying 360 prisoners of war have arrived, and a fourth plane carrying 110 prisoners will arrive in two hours.”
“Tomorrow, 200 prisoners will arrive from Aden airport and 150 prisoners will be released from Sana’a.
“We had great difficulties up until this day, and some parties didn’t want this process to take place,” he said during a press conference held at the airport.
Al-Mortadha confirmed that they are dealing with the prisoners’ file from a purely humanitarian side, adding that “we hope that all parties will deal with it from the same principle.”
He further confirmed that the National Salvation Government is ready to engage directly in new consultations leading to new agreements.
Al-Mortadha congratulated all the freed prisoners and praised the efforts of all those who contributed to the success of the exchange.
