Red Cross conducts rare visit with 3,400 Yemen war prisoners

By NAJIB JOBAIN
Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Red Cross says it has conducted rare visits with thousands of prisoners on both sides of Yemen’s eight-year-old civil war, a step that could pave the way for an exchange of detainees between the rival parties. The body’s regional chief told The Associated Press on Wednesday that members of the organization had seen more than 3,400 individuals during a 10-day visit to a facility in Saudi Arabia and a separate trip to Yemen’s capital, this fall. The conflict, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, has killed more than 150,000 people. Neither side has released the number of conflict-related prisoners it holds, but tens of thousands are estimated to have been held over the course of the war.