News / Yemen

Yemen’s Ansarullah unilaterally releases over 150 war prisoners, says ICRC

Saturday, 25 January 2025 2:03 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 25 January 2025 2:03 PM ]

Detainees walk to attend a press conference on their release by the Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement in Sana’a, Yemen, on May 26, 2024. (Photo by Xinhua news agency)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement has one-sidedly freed over 150 prisoners of war detained during clashes with militants affiliated with the Saudi-backed regime based in the southern port city of Aden.

Iscander Saeed, the spokesperson of the ICRC in Yemen, told reporters at a press conference in the capital Sana’a on Saturday that “Ansarullah today released 153 war prisoners unilaterally.”

“The ICRC has facilitated the initiative in the framework to encourage all sides to move ahead in this humanitarian file and release prisoners,” he said.

Abdul Qader al-Murtada, the head of the National Committee for Prisoner Affairs, said on Friday that Ansarullah would free dozens of prisoners, calling the move a “unilateral humanitarian initiative.”

Back on May 26 last year, Ansarullah unilaterally released 113 detainees.

“We are pleased to see that humanitarian considerations are being prioritized, particularly for the families eagerly awaiting the return of their loved ones, especially with the approach of the Eid al-Adha celebrations in a few weeks,” said Daphnee Maret, then ICRC's head of delegation in Yemen, said at the time.

“We hope this paves the way for further releases,” Maret said.

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In April 2023, nearly 900 prisoners were released following UN-sponsored negotiations between the Saudi-backed regime and the Ansarullah resistance movement.

High-profile figures, including Nasser Mansur Hadi, the brother of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and Mahmoud al-Subeihi, the country's former defense minister, were among those who were freed.

Saudi Arabia launched the bloody war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states to reinstall Hadi, who resigned from the presidency in late 2014 and later fled to Riyadh amid a political conflict with the popular Ansarullah movement.

The war objective was also to crush the Ansarullah movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.

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