Tribesmen loyal to the Houthi group shout slogans during a gathering in Yemen’s capital, Sana, on Feb. 4. (Yayhya Arhab / European Pressphoto Agency)
The National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs in Yemen announced that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been obstructing a comprehensive prisoner exchange deal aming all parties in Yemen.
The committee said that it had submitted many lists with prisoners names to local and international organizations and authorities. However, its efforts were held due to a direct intervention by the UAE authorities that control a notable part of southern Yemen.
The National Committee for Prisoner Affairs claimed that the UAE runs dozens of secret prisons in Mukalla, Aden and the Yemeni islands. The National Committee also claimed that the UAE transferred a large number of prisoners to prisons in Abu Dhabi and that a large part of the prisoners in the Marib Front were handed over to Saudi Arabia, which transferred them to prisons inside Saudi Arabia in the Abha area.
The committee announced that it had succeeded in organizing some prisoner exchanges at the local level, but that its success would be limited if the countries concerned didn’t cooperate. The National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs said it would pursue its efforts to resolve this humanitarian issue and it will maintain contacts with several local and international humanitarian organizations. It’s worth mentioning that a report by the Associated Press also claimed that the United Arab Emirates runs secret prisons in Yemen.
