News - Yemen: The head of Yemen’s National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, Abdulqader al-Mortadha, has outlined additional key elements of the prisoner exchange agreement reached on Tuesday in the Omani capital, Muscat.

In a post on his X account on Tuesday, al-Mortadha said the most significant outcome of the agreement was the approval of a “comprehensive numerical exchange deal” involving 2,900 prisoners from both sides, with the names to be finalized within one month.

He also noted that the parties agreed to recover all bodies from all frontlines and areas, with the remains to be handed over through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

As a third major provision, al-Mortadha stated that the agreement includes the formation of joint committees to visit all detention facilities following the implementation of the exchange, identify any remaining detainees, and work towards their release.

The last UN-supervised prisoner exchange took place in April 2023, a year after the signing of 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, 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.