Yemen’s Houthis ready to exchange prisoners with Sudan via ICRC: Houthi official

“We informed the Sudanese authorities through the ICRC that we have Sudanese prisoners, and that we are ready to hold negotiations with them for a swap deal,” Abdulqader al-Mortada wrote in a post published on his official Twitter page on Thursday.

أبلغنا السلطات السودانية عبر اللجنة الدولية للصليب الأحمر بأن لدينا أسرى سودانيين وأننا جاهزون لإجراء تفاوض معهم على صفقة تبادل.
نأمل أن تتحرك السلطات هناك للضغط على السعودية والإمارات لتحرير أبنائهم.— عبدالقادر المرتضى (@abdulqadermortd) January 30, 2020

“We hope the Sudanese authorities will put pressure on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to secure the release of their children,” he added.

Back on November 2, 2019, the spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces said more than 4,000 Sudanese militiamen fighting alongside Saudi-led military forces against Houthi Ansarullah fighters had been killed and many more injured ever since the Riyadh regime and its allies launched a military aggression against Yemen.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Sana’a at the time, Brigadier General Yahya Saree said 4,253 Sudanese militants had lost their lives in clashes with Yemeni forces, noting that the total number of the Saudi-paid Sudanese mercenaries killed in Yemen since the beginning of the current year stands at 459.

Watch Sudanese mercenaries fight alongside Saudi-led forces in YemenA video shows Sudanese mercenaries fighting alongside Saudi-led forces in eastern Yemen.

Saree pointed out that 185 Sudanese militiamen have been killed and tens of others wounded in battles against Yemeni army forces and allied fighters from Popular Committees in a matter of months.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement.

Yemeni forces free 64 Saudi-paid child soldiers under UNICEF supervisionYemeni forces free dozens of Saudi-paid child soldiers under the supervision of the UNICEF.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past nearly five years.

The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.