Families hope for breakthrough as Yemen prisoner talks open in Oman

MUSCAT

Yemen’s government and the Houthi movement are set to open prisoner-exchange talks in the Omani capital on Friday, a Yemeni government source said, raising hopes among families of detainees for progress on one of the conflict’s most emotive files. Oman has previously hosted several rounds that yielded limited breakthroughs.

The source, who requested anonymity, said the negotiations “will begin today, Friday, in Muscat, in the presence of the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg.”

In a post on X late on Thursday, the Yemeni Embassy in Oman said Ambassador Khaled Saleh Shatef had received the government delegation leading negotiations on detainees and the forcibly disappeared, headed by Sheikh Hadi Haij. The ambassador “urged the delegation to exert all efforts and cooperate in this humanitarian file, which will ease the suffering of many Yemeni families,” the embassy said, without giving further details.

The government source said both delegations arrived in Muscat on Wednesday to start a new round of UN-sponsored talks on the prisoner issue.

The Houthi movement continues to resist progress in wider peace negotiations aimed at reunifying state institutions and ending its takeover of the capital, a position that has prolonged civilian hardship.

Separately, the Abductees’ Mothers Association, a non-governmental group, urged the parties engaged in the Muscat consultations to “shoulder their humanitarian responsibilities and proceed seriously towards ending the suffering of the abductees after years of obstruction.”

The association said the detainee file “is purely humanitarian and should not be tied to political calculations,” calling for this round to be “a genuine step towards closing the chapter of pain and releasing all abductees, detainees and the forcibly disappeared unconditionally.”

Yemen has seen a relative easing of hostilities since April 2022 in a conflict now in its eleventh year between government-aligned forces and the Houthis, who control several provinces and cities, including Sana’a, after seizing them in September 2014.

The most recent major exchange took place in April 2023, when roughly 900 prisoners from both sides, including Saudis and Sudanese serving with the Arab coalition, were released following talks in Switzerland, mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.

On January 25, the Houthi movement unilaterally freed 153 people captured during the war.

The total number of detainees held by each side remains unclear. During Stockholm talks in 2018, both delegations submitted lists with more than 15,000 names. Human rights groups estimate the figure at about 20,000.

As regional and international efforts continue to fall short of securing a political settlement, new security developments in Yemen’s south in recent days have fuelled fears that the country could tip further toward de facto partition.