A Yemeni official announced that the prisoner exchange process agreed upon with the Houthis will begin Thursday and last for three days, provided that it includes flights between the capital, Sana'a , Aden , and other regions in Yemen, in addition to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The Houthis and the government announced last month that they had reached an agreement during negotiations in Berne to exchange more than 880 prisoners, in a new sign of hope with the acceleration of efforts to end the war.

The agreement on the exchange was reached days after Saudi Arabia and Iran , which support different parties to the conflict, announced that they had reached an agreement to restore their diplomatic relations after seven years of estrangement.

"All arrangements have been completed...to implement the agreed-upon exchange process," said the official spokesman for the government delegation to the prisoners and abductees negotiations, member of the negotiating delegation and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Rights, Majed Fadael, on Twitter.

He added, "Implementation will start, God willing, on April 13, 2023... and the first day of the exchange process will be through reciprocal flights of the Red Cross between Aden-Sana'a and Sanaa-Aden."

It will be followed the next day by flights between Sanaa, Riyadh, Abha (southern Saudi Arabia) and Mocha (western Yemen). On the third day, there will be flights between Marib (central north Yemen) and Sanaa, according to the Yemeni official.

The Houthis took control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2014, in a conflict that began the same year between them and government forces. The following year, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition that entered the war in support of the government, exacerbating a conflict that left hundreds of thousands dead and caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

A ceasefire reached in April 2022 resulted in a sharp decline in hostilities. The truce ended in October, but fighting remains largely suspended.
Under the agreement, the Houthis will release 181 prisoners, including Saudis and Sudanese, in exchange for 706 detainees held by government forces.

"This exchange process will be followed by other exchanges in the near future until all detainees and abductees are released on the basis of all for all, and all detention centers and prisons are cleared," Fadael wrote on Twitter.

And on Saturday, the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, Abdul Qadir Al-Murtada, announced the arrival of 13 prisoners at Sana'a International Airport in exchange for a Saudi prisoner who was released earlier.

In the last major exchange that took place in October 2020, "more than 1,050 prisoners were released and returned to their regions or countries," according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The new exchange process comes in the midst of strenuous attempts to build on the Saudi and Iranian rapprochement and to consolidate a months-long truce in Yemen as a prelude to a transitional phase that will witness negotiations for a comprehensive peace.

A Saudi delegation headed by Ambassador Muhammad Al Jaber held talks with the Houthis in Sana'a on Sunday, in a rare visit whose aim, according to the ambassador, is to "stabilize the truce" and discuss ways to push for a "comprehensive and sustainable political solution."