The Yemeni authorities and the Houthis will exchange 15,000 prisoners over the course of 48 days, as was agreed during their recent talks in Sweden, Hamza Alkamaly, a member of the Yemeni government delegation to the UN-backed talks, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
RIMBO (Sweden) (Pakistan Point news / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) The Yemeni authorities and the Houthis will exchange 15,000 prisoners over the course of 48 days, as was agreed during their recent talks in Sweden, Hamza Alkamaly, a member of the Yemeni government delegation to the UN-backed talks, told Sputnik on Tuesday.The parties to the Yemeni conflict agreed to exchange prisoners during their UN-sponsored negotiations in the suburbs of Stockholm. Earlier in the day, Alkamaly told Sputnik that the Yemeni government had submitted a list of 8,200 prisoners that were to be exchanged with the Houthi rebel movement to the office of UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths.
"The duration [of implementation] is 48 days ... The Red Cross will control the transfer process through Sanaa airport. Oman will encourage the Houthis to fulfill the agreement," Alkamaly said.
The prisoner swap was also confirmed to Sputnik by several informed sources, who said that the two sides had submitted the lists of 15,000 prisoners.
"The parties will have two weeks to study the dossier and the lists ... Then, the approved Names will be handed over to the Red Cross in order to start transporting prisoners from the airports of Seiyun and Sanaa," the sources said.
The reconciliation talks between the government delegation and representatives of the Houthi movement began in Sweden last week and will last through Friday.
Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels for several years. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015.
