Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
The Houthi group announced on Friday that it is not possible to implement the prisoner exchange deal that was scheduled to begin on 27 January, due to the failure to finalize the lists of names so far.
Abdul Qader al-Murtada, head of the group’s Prisoners’ Affairs Committee, said that the implementation of the deal has been delayed because more time is needed to complete agreement on the final lists, noting that the issue is still under follow-up.
Al-Murtada added that the exchange process “requires more time to be completed,” calling on the other parties—referring to the Yemeni government—not to place obstacles in the way of implementing what was agreed upon during the latest round of negotiations.
The Yemeni government had not responded to the Houthi delegation’s claims at the time of writing this report.
At the end of December 2025, a prisoner exchange agreement was announced during the tenth round of consultations on the file, hosted by the Omani capital, Muscat. The agreement includes the release of 2,900 detainees from all parties and across various fronts.
The Stockholm Agreement, signed in December 2018, stipulated the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross as a neutral intermediary in such operations, stemming from its neutral, impartial, and humanitarian mandate based on international humanitarian law.
Within this framework, the International Committee of the Red Cross participated in the release, transfer, and repatriation of more than 900 detainees in Yemen in 2020, and more than 1,000 detainees in 2023.
