Local Editor
Head of Yemen’s National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, Abdulqader al-Mortadha, said on Sunday that the Saudi-backed pro-Hadi delegation has called for the postponement of a prisoner swap.
“We were ready today to exchange the lists of prisoners under the set deadline, but the Riyadh-supported group requested to put off the process until tomorrow,” Yemen’s al-Masirah television network quoted him as saying.
Mortadha further stressed that the prisoner exchange agreement is defined by an operational mechanism, expressing hope that the United Nations commits everyone to specific obligations so that no room is available for manipulation, disavowal and delay.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah movement.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
