dpa
Cairo
Yemen’s warring parties on Sunday completed a mass prisoner swap as hopes rise to end the years-long conflict in the impoverished country. On Friday, the Yemeni government and their rival Houthi rebels began a three-day operation to exchange nearly 900 prisoners of war. The operation "concluded successfully” on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
"The ICRC and YRCS [Yemeni Red Crescent Society] have worked tirelessly to reunite about 900 former detainees with their families, taking a positive step toward peace and reconciliation in Yemen,” the humanitarian agency’s teamin Yemen said on Twitter. In total, the ICRC transported 869 former detainees over the past three days, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen Daphnee Maret said. "It’s been an intense period for all involved - the joy of families reuniting has moved us all to tears,” she added. Last month, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Iran-aligned Houthis agreed to the swap after UN-brokered talks in Switzerland.
Also in March, Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Iran agreed in a China-brokered deal to restore their ties after a rupture of seven years. The prisoner swap came days after talks between the Houthis and Saudi negotiators in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sana’a, to renew a nationwide ceasefire and negotiate a peace agreement. Yemenhas been locked in a conflict since late 2014.