CAIRO — Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have reached an agreement to free 2,900 detainees held during the 11-year civil war, according to Saudi and Houthi officials.
Saudi Ambassador Mohamed AlJabir said in a statement on X that the agreement was signed under the supervision of the Office of the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross, ''which will enable all detainees to return to their families.''
''I commend the efforts of the negotiation teams from both sides who succeeded in reaching an understanding and concluding this agreement, which addresses a humanitarian issue and strengthens efforts to bring calm and build confidence in Yemen,'' said AlJabir.
The detainees would include Saudi and Sudanese nationals, according to Abdelkader al-Murtada, the Houthi head of the National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs and Mohamed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesperson.
Al-Murtada said on X that the deal includes freeing Yemenis along with seven Saudi and 23 Sudanese nationals.
Yemen has been torn by a civil war since 2014, when the Houthis captured Sanaa and most of the country's north, forcing out the government. The war, which has stalled over the past years, has killed more than 150,000 people, both fighters and civilians, and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
The exchange deal was agreed upon in the Omani capital of Muscat in cooperation with Saudi leaders. It will be the largest prisoner exchange between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government since the start of the civil war in 2014.
The U.N. special envoy, Hans Grundberg, said the agreement was a ''positive and meaningful step that will hopefully ease the suffering of detainees and their families across Yemen.''
