Yemen's Houthi authorities released 600 people held in connection with the country's war in Sanaa on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, in a unilateral move that came as Houthi forces pressed their advance in southern Yemen.

Source: Reuters

The ICRC said the release was initiated by the Houthis' National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs and was not part of the Stockholm Agreement, the UN-brokered framework for prisoner exchanges between the two sides. The organisation said it played no role in deciding who was freed or how many people were released.

Red Cross delegates interviewed each detainee privately before the release, checked their health and helped arrange their return home, the ICRC said. It added that it remains ready to act as a neutral intermediary in future releases and transfers of detainees if the parties ask it to.

What the Houthi prisoners chief said

Abdulqader al-Murtada, the head of the Houthi prisoners committee, told a news conference in Sanaa that the men were fighters from forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition who had been captured on several fronts, especially along the Saudi border. He said many had spent years in detention and that the group included elderly and sick men.

Al-Murtada said the release was the largest unilateral one by the Houthis since the coalition intervened in 2015, and brought the total freed under their amnesty initiatives to 2,612, all without an exchange. Those figures could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Yemen's internationally recognised government.

A release on a day of retreat at Bab el-Mandeb

The release came on the same day that forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government said they were withdrawing from the Bab el-Mandeb area west of Taiz to protect Aden, leaving the Houthis in control of ground overlooking the strategic strait.

Read the full report on the government forces' withdrawal from the Bab el-Mandeb area. Yemen government forces withdraw from Bab el-Mandeb area

Fighting between the Houthis and government forces resumed in July, breaking a 2022 UN-brokered truce, and has become another front in the wider war involving Iran. The Houthis have also fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia, and the United Nations has accused them of detaining dozens of its staff.

What happens next

There was no immediate response from the Yemeni government to the release. The ICRC said it stood ready to support further releases if asked, while fighting around Taiz and in the south was reported to be intensifying, with humanitarian conditions worsening.