Yemeni government and rebels agree prisoner swap in Geneva
The ICRC has helped facilitate previous prisoner swaps from the civil war in Yemen in the past few years.
Keystone / Yahya Arhab
The government of Yemen and Houthi rebels have a agreed to release hundreds of prisoners from the civil war on the Arabian peninsula.
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The Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross said the warring parties to the conflict in Yemen finalised a plan for the release of 887 prisoners from all sides.
The agreement, which was announced on Monday, came after a ten-day meeting hosted by the Swiss government and facilitated by the United Nations and the ICRC.
The parties also agreed to reconvene in May to discuss further measures, notably visits to each other’s detention facilities.
The ICRC will make its expertise available for the implementation of the agreement, which was signed in the Swiss city of Geneva.
‘Road to peace’
During the ceremony, a senior Swiss foreign ministry official, Thomas Gürber, said the prisoner swap is a step on the road to peace.
A UN-brokered ceasefire in Yemen came into effect a year ago. It expired last October after being extended several times. Despite reports of fighting, there have been no major ground offensives since then. However, all efforts to resolve the conflict permanently failed.
Switzerland supports the UN peace process in Yemen as part of its policy of ‘good offices’.
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