A UN-backed negotiation round for a prisoner exchange between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group ended without an agreement. The talks began in Jordan last January with the aim of releasing 300 prisoners in total, among them prominent officials such as the brother of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The office of the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths said: “Although the two parties did not agree to release the prisoners during this round of talks, they committed themselves to continue discussing the criteria for the extended release process in the future.” “The supervisory committee to implement the exchange of prisoners, detainees and missing agreement concludes its meeting. The two parties to the meeting declared their commitment to continue discussing the determinants of an expanded future process for releasing detainees.” Griffiths said, “It was disappointing that this round of talks ended without reaching the equivalent historical outcome of the meeting last September, which resulted in the release of 1056 detainees.”

He continued, “I reiterate my call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees, including the sick, the wounded, the elderly, children, and civilian detainees, including women and journalists.”

A source in the Yemeni government, who participated in this latest round of talks, held the Houthis responsible for the failure and accused them of not adhering to previous agreements related to prisoners.