Local Editor
Yemen’s warring sides started talks on Wednesday in the Jordanian capital over a deal to free thousands of prisoners as part of U.N.-led peace efforts, two U.N. sources said.
Delegates from the popular Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed resigned Yemeni regime had arrived in Amman earlier. They will discuss the implementation of a deal agreed in U.N-led talks last in Sweden in December that would allow thousands of families to be reunited.
For his part, the United Nations’ Secretary General thanked the Jordanian government for hosting the meeting.
“The SE extends thanks to the government of Jordan for its approval to host a meeting of the follow up committee on implementing the prisoner exchange agreement, and for its continuous support for endeavors to bring peace to #Yemen,” a tweet on the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen (OSESGY) Official account read on Wednesday.
On December 13, peace talks between the Houthi revolutionaries and resigned Yemeni regime were held in the Swedish capital, where both warring parties reached a ceasefire agreement in vacating the strategic Yemeni port city of Hodeida.
The armed conflict in Yemen that has been continuing for four-and-half years, has brought more than 22 million people that accounts to over three-quarters of the entire country's population, in dire need of humanitarian assistance or protection, of whom over eight million are severely food insecure and at risk of starvation, the UN has estimated.
The Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen in early 2015 has also wrecked the country's medical, water and sanitation systems, resulting in the outbreak of cholera and other deadly diseases. Thousands of civilians, especially children, have lost their lives either in airstrikes or fighting hunger.
Source: Yemenwatch.net
