An exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen’s civil war will start on Friday, one day later than previously announced, a government official said on Wednesday.
No reason was given for the delay to the three-day exchange, in which prisoners will be flown between cities in Yemen and its oil-rich neighbor, Saudi Arabia.
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The biggest prisoner swap since 2020 is taking place after a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which launched a military intervention in 2015, held talks with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia this week in an attempt to end hostilities.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by direct and indirect causes in a war that left many on the brink of famine in a country which was already the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula.
“It has been confirmed that the exchange process will start on Friday morning,” tweeted Majid Fadael, spokesman for the government delegation negotiating the exchange.
The prisoner transfers “will last for three days, starting on Friday and ending on Sunday,” said Fadael, revising the timetable he announced on Tuesday.
The Houthis are releasing 181 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, in exchange for 706 detainees held by government forces, according to an agreement reached last month in Switzerland.
Yemen has been at war since a Houthi advance in 2014 saw them seize the capital Sanaa, leading the Arab coalition to intervene in March 2015 to support the ousted, internationally recognized government.
The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al-Jaber, flew to Sanaa for talks with the Houthis this week, saying he wanted to work towards a “political solution” to the conflict.
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