Saudi Arabia unilaterally releases 104 Yemeni detainees

Sanaa: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that 104 Yemeni detainees were unilaterally released by Saudi Arabia.

The move followed a large-scale three-day prisoner swap between the Yemeni government, the Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthi rebels that ended on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The ICRC facilitated the release of 104 detainees from Saudi Arabia to Yemen at the request of the Saudi-led coalition, the statement said.

Two ICRC planes carried 96 released prisoners from Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport to Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, while another ICRC plane transported eight freed prisoners from Abha to Aden, a port city held by coalition-aligned forces in Yemen.

“I am deeply moved and proud that our teams could reunite so many detainees with their families over the last four days and we stand ready to do so for those who are yet to be released,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric was quoted as saying in the statement.

Daphnee Maret, ICRC’s head of delegation in Yemen, noted that these release operations have enabled the reunion of hundreds of families just in time for Eid celebrations and expressed hope that they would bring the conflict closer to an end and alleviate years of human suffering.

Meanwhile, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV confirmed the arrivals of three ICRC planes at the airports of Sanaa and Aden.

Earlier on Monday, Turki Al-Malki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the unilateral release was part of “efforts to stabilize the ceasefire and create an atmosphere for dialogue between the Yemeni parties in order to reach a comprehensive and sustainable political solution that ends the crisis”.

The latest move comes amid increasing international efforts to bring peace to Yemen and end the prolonged civil war that erupted in late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern cities and displaced the Saudi-backed government from the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened in the conflict in support of the Yemeni government in 2015.