Saudi Arabia to release Houthi prisoners after ill soldier freed

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said seven Houthi prisoners will be released after a Saudi soldier was freed and arrived in Riyadh in a rare exchange of goodwill between combatants in the devastating three-year war.

Saudi prisoner Mousa Awaji returned on a Red Cross plane from Sanaa on Tuesday with the rebels saying he was freed because of an illness, Houthi TV channel al-Masirah reported, citing Abdulqadir Murtada, a Houthi official.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said the exchange came because the Houthis did not provide Awaji with proper medical treatment, and efforts were under way to end the detention of other prisoners, state media reported.

Murtada said the release came as an “initiative” by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, according to the Houthi-run Saba news agency.

The United Nations special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, helped coordinate the release. In a tweet, he welcomed the gesture, saying he hoped to see “more similar humanitarian gestures from the parties”, and looked forward to the implementation of a prisoner-exchange agreement.

The SE welcomes the unconditional release by AA of the sick Saudi prisoner, whom the ICRC will transfer from Sanaa to Riyadh today. The SE hopes to see more similar humanitarian gestures from the parties. #Yemen

— OSE_Yemen (@OSE_Yemen) January 29, 2019

Afrah Nasser, a Yemen political analyst, told Al Jazeera it was important for the international community to pressure both sides to release more prisoners of war. She added the rebels’ move also had symbolism.

“It’s very remarkable that they released a sick Saudi captive in order to send a message about the destroyed or devastated healthcare system. The Houthis are really playing it clever at this moment,” Nasser said.

Yemen’s warring parties have yet to agree to full terms of a prisoner swap – one of the least contentious confidence-building measures agreed at UN-sponsored peace talks held in December amid Western pressure to end the bloody conflict.

The UN is pushing for the exchange and the implementation of a ceasefire in the main port city of Hodeidah to pave the way for a second round of discussions to end a war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed in almost four years.

Agreement in peril

While the prisoner swap was a positive sign, a humanitarian group warned on Tuesday that a ceasefire agreed in Hodeidah is on the verge of collapsing, after a retired Dutch general in charge of the truce stepped down from his role.

The US-based International Rescue Committee said recent clashes in the city between Houthi rebels who control it and pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition have increased dramatically since last week.

“In recent days, with clashes erupting inside Hodeidah and both parties accusing each other of violations, the agreement is increasingly in peril,” Frank McManus of the group said.

The developments threaten to unravel a ceasefire and prisoner swap signed in December, the group said, urging the international community to step up pressure on the warring parties to stick to their commitments.

The warning comes a day after the UN envoy for Yemen urged warring sides to withdraw their troops from the city – a lifeline for millions of Yemenis facing starvation.

The two parties agreed at the talks to a mass prisoner swap and the ambitious ceasefire pact in Hodeidah, the Red Sea city home to the impoverished country’s most valuable port.

The UN Security Council this month unanimously adopted Resolution 2452, which calls for the deployment of up to 75 monitors to oversee the fragile ceasefire and pullback of forces from Hodeidah.