Yemen government, Houthis meet to hammer out major prisoner swap

Yemeni government and Houthi (Ansarallah) representatives met in Jordan on Thursday (January 17th) for a second day to thrash out the details of a major prisoner exchange, AFP reported.

The swap, which could involve up to 15,000 detainees from both sides, was agreed in principle as a confidence-building measure ahead of peace talks in Sweden last month.

The talks in the Jordanian capital Amman come as international donors meet in Berlin to set up a fund to support the fledgling peace process in Yemen.

Representatives of the UN, which brokered the swap agreement, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will supervise its implementation, are taking part in the Amman talks.

During a first day of talks on Wednesday, the warring parties met separately with the mediators and submitted lists of prisoners they want to see released.

On Thursday, they were expected to meet face-to-face to hammer out the details of its implementation.

The new meetings come after the UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the deployment of up to 75 monitors to oversee the truce in al-Hodeidah.

On Thursday, the group of monitors came under fire but was unharmed in al-Hodeidah, the UN said.

The head of the mission, Patrick Cammaert, and his team were "safe in al-Hodeidah following reported shooting incident", tweeted the spokesperson of the UN secretary general.

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a UN official confirmed that "shots were fired" at Cammaert's convoy and that the retired Dutch general was "safe".

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