Yemen's warring sides are in Sweden for talks on ending more than three years of civil war. So far, they have agreed to a prisoner swap. Yet a Yemeni government official warned on Friday that a military offensive is still open if rebels reject to pull out from the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths announced on Thursday, "I'm pleased to announce the signing of an agreement on the exchange of prisoners, detainees, the missing, the forcibly detained and individuals placed under house arrest."
Yet despite reaching an agreement on a prisoner swap, Yemen Agriculture Minister Othman al-Mujalli warned that a military offensive is still possible if rebels reject the Hodeidah pullout. The government accuses the Houthis of arms smuggling through Hodeidah, also a conduit for 90 percent of food imports, and has demanded the rebels withdraw from the port.
Yemen's government also expressed its support for the reopening of Sanaa international airport, located in the rebel-held capital and largely shut down for three years.
Othman Hussein Faid Mujali, Yemen's minister of agriculture and irrigation, speaks to media during the peace talks on Yemen in Rimbo, Sweden, December 7, 2018. /VCG Photo
The peace talks provided the opportunity for 12 Yemeni journalists to come to Sweden under the umbrella of a UNESCO initiative to provide impartial coverage.
"The newsroom is led by an editor-in-chief who is actually an expert who has done this work with CFI and UNESCO in many different initiatives in the Arab region. The situation in Yemen now is that the media landscape is very polarized, where a lot of media are driven by political agendas, so there needs to be a third voice that comes that is providing balanced information to the Yemeni public," said Marion Desmurger, senior program assistant at UNESCO's Doha office.
Aid agencies are warning that Yemen is close to a full-blown famine. And they are calling for safer passage to deliver aid in the country.
"Millions of people in Yemen have nothing to eat. Today, the World Food Program is feeding 8 million people. By the end of the month, we will scale up to 10 million people. And, by the end of January, 12 million people," said Herve Verhoosel, a spokesperson for the World Food Program.
Yemen has a population of 29 million people, so the situation is getting very desperate. The talks here are expected to go into next week. And, the question remains whether they will get the results needed to bring an end to the suffering.
(Cover: Delegates from the Yemeni government sit down for peace talks with delegates from the Houthis, at a remote location in Sweden, December 6, 2018. /VCG Photo)