ADEN: Yemen’s warring parties are expected to agree on the terms of a prisoner exchange in around 10 days, a representative of the internationally recognised Yemeni government said on Wednesday.
Talks between the two sides took place in Jordan last week. Both parties need to agree on lists of prisoners to be swapped.
“We expect that in 10 days time the final signing will have happened,” the head of the government delegation to the prisoner-exchange talks, Hadi Haig, said by telephone.
The United Nations is pushing for the exchange and a peace deal in Yemen’s main port, Hodeidah. That could open the way for more talks between the Ansar Allah movement and the government on ending the country’s civil war.
The swap was one of the least contentious confidence-building measures at December’s UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden, held amid Western pressure to end the conflict. The fighting has lasted nearly four years, killed tens of thousands and brought 10 million people to the brink of famine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that it hopes to see “progress in the coming days” and urged the warring parties not to let the opportunity slip away.
“This is a crucial moment for the people of Yemen,” Red Cross regional director Fabrizio Carboni said in a statement issued at a press conference in the Ansar Allah-held capital, Sanaa.
The ICRC said it was preparing for the swap by increasing staff numbers and arranging medical support. It was also preparing two planes to carry detainees between Sanaa and Sayoun, a town under the control of the government.
The conflict pits the Ansar Allah against Yemeni forces backed by a coalition, which are trying to restore the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Hadi was ousted from power in late 2014 when the Ansar Allah seized Sanaa. — Reuters
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