Yemen Prisoner Exchange Brokered by ICRC Is Postponed

A prisoner exchange in Yemen has been postponed for three days. The exchange of prisoners and abductees supervised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was supposed to begin on Saturday. But Abdul Qadir Al-Murtada, head of the Houthi rebels’ Prisoners’ Affairs Committee, said the Houthi rebels were informed late on Friday that the deal would be postponed because the internationally recognized government of Yemen was not ready to implement the deal.

The Yemeni government said that the ICRC had asked for the postponement. But the ICRC told The New Arab: “We understand that there may be questions regarding the delay in the upcoming detainee release operation in Yemen. The process for these operations involves multiple layers and can be quite complex, and more time was needed to complete the agreed-upon procedures before the start of the operations.”

The prisoner exchange was agreed to by both sides last month. It is believed to involve more than 700 Houthi prisoners and 181 Yemen government prisoners.  A large-scale prisoner exchange mediated by the ICRC in 2020 included more than 1,000 prisoners and abductees from both sides.