Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels have agreed to release 2,900 detainees in what will be the largest prisoner exchange since the country’s civil war began more than a decade ago, officials said.
Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohamed AlJabir announced the deal on X, saying it was signed under the supervision of the U.N. special envoy for Yemen and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The agreement, he said, will allow detainees to return to their families and represents an important humanitarian breakthrough.
“I commend the efforts of the negotiation teams from both sides who succeeded in reaching this understanding,” AlJabir said, adding that the deal helps build confidence and supports efforts to restore calm in Yemen.
Houthi officials confirmed the agreement, saying it includes the release of Yemeni detainees as well as seven Saudi nationals and 23 Sudanese nationals. Abdelkader al-Murtada, head of the Houthis’ National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, said the exchange reflects months of negotiations aimed at resolving one of the conflict’s most sensitive humanitarian issues.
The agreement was reached in the Omani capital of Muscat with Saudi involvement and follows a 12-day round of talks between the warring parties. It marks the largest such exchange since fighting erupted in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the government to flee.
The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, welcomed the deal, calling it a “positive and meaningful step” that could ease the suffering of detainees and their families across the country. His office said the talks were part of ongoing efforts to push both sides to meet their commitments under the 2018 Stockholm Agreement, which calls for the release of all conflict-related detainees.
Christine Cipolla, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, said the organization is ready to help implement the agreement and ensure detainees are released, transferred and repatriated safely and with dignity.
The ICRC has previously played a key intermediary role in prisoner exchanges, including facilitating the release of more than 1,000 detainees in 2020 and over 800 in 2023.
Yemen’s civil war has killed more than 150,000 people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. While the conflict has largely stalled in recent years, the prisoner exchange is being seen as a rare confidence-building measure that could help advance broader peace efforts.
