News – Yemen: A new window has opened in Yemen’s long-stalled humanitarian issue following the signing of an agreement providing for a large-scale prisoner exchange, officials announced on Tuesday.

Under the deal, 1,700 detainees from the army and popular committees are to be released in exchange for 1,200 prisoners held by the Saudi-backed side, including seven Saudi nationals and 23 Sudanese, according to informed sources.

Head of the National Delegation Mohammed Abdulsalam welcomed the agreement, praising Oman for its role in facilitating and ensuring the success of the latest round of talks. 

For his part, Abdulqader Al-Murtadha, head of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, outlined the main parameters of the deal, noting that further details would be announced later.

In a statement, the Office of the UN Special Envoy to Yemen confirmed that negotiations lasted 11 days in Oman and resulted in an agreement on a new phase of releases involving detainees from all parties. 

The UN described the outcome as a positive and important step toward easing the suffering of detainees and their families across Yemen, calling for further efforts to build on the progress.

Oman also welcomed the positive spirit that prevailed during the December 2025 negotiations, expressing hope that the humanitarian agreement would help create favorable conditions for addressing other outstanding issues related to the situation in Yemen.

The last UN-supervised prisoner exchange took place in April 2023, a year after a truce agreement. Since then, efforts to advance the humanitarian issue have stalled amid continued political tensions and external pressure, despite a halt in Saudi-Emirati airstrikes on Yemen since 2022 in exchange for a cessation of Yemeni attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

Key humanitarian issues—including the reopening of Sana’a International Airport, easing restrictions on goods entering Hodeidah port, and the payment of public-sector salaries—have remained unresolved.

Yemeni authorities have repeatedly warned that prolonging the state of “no war, no peace” without tangible humanitarian progress risks renewed escalation.

The prisoners’ issue is considered one of the most sensitive humanitarian dossiers in Yemen’s conflict, with previous exchange deals serving as rare confidence-building measures amid years of war and blockade imposed by the Saudi-led aggression coalition. 

Oman has repeatedly played a key mediating role in prisoner negotiations, contributing to limited breakthroughs despite ongoing military and political tensions.