The Red Cross said Wednesday that it had conducted rare visits to thousands of prisoners on both sides of Yemen’s eight-year civil war, a step that could pave the way for an exchange of detainees between the rival parties.
Fabrizio Carboni, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s director for the Middle East, told The Associated Press that members of the organization had seen more than 3,400 individuals in a 10-day visit to a facility in Saudi Arabia in December and a separate trip to Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in October.
He said members of the organization had been allowed access to some of the most “secret and sensitive places” in each country, and will be able to inform many detainees’ loved ones of their whereabouts.
“It means the authorities accept our presence and what comes with our presence, which is the capacity to repeat the visits, the fact that we will inform the families,” Carboni said.
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