Two Americans freed by Yemeni rebels
Two US citizens who were taken hostage by rebels in Yemen, supported by Iran, were released on Wednesday in a surprise deal negotiated by the United States.
This agreement frees Sandra Loli, a humanitarian worker held hostage for three years, and Mikael Gidada, a businessman detained for almost a year. The White House national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, announced that this release operation was assisted by Saudi Arabia and Oman. In addition to the release of these two citizens, the remains of the late Bilal Fateen, a third American captured by the Hutus, will be repatriated to the US.
"The US welcomes today the release of US citizens Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada from the custody of the Houthis In Yemen. We send our condolences to the family of Bilal Fateen, whose remains will also be repatriated," O'Brien said in a statement released by the White House. "President Trump continues to give priority to securing the release and repatriation of Americans abducted abroad," O'Brien said. "We will not rest until the detainees are home with their loved ones," he added.
In return, the Americans have released 200 members of the rebel group who have returned to Yemen. These fighters flew to Oman years ago to receive medical care as part of a goodwill gesture by the Saudi Arabian-led coalition; but once they arrived, the Saudi authorities did not allow them to return home.
The Houthis leaders also saw the agreement as a victory. The returning militants were received by Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, one of the most important political leaders of the insurgent group, according to Al-Masirah Net, the official website of the rebels.
Negotiations with the Hutids took place despite a debate within the Trump Administration over whether to label the rebels as terrorists, along with al-Qaeda and other groups.
The Americans flew in an Omani air force plane on Wednesday from the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. Hours earlier, the same plane, along with another aircraft, returned 283 Hutu militants who had been stranded in Oman for years after receiving medical care there, according to Houthis officials. The agreement, which also required the delivery of medical aid to northern Yemen, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The news comes as an exchange of 1,081 prisoners between the Houthis rebels and the internationally recognised Yemeni government is expected to begin on Thursday, something both sides agreed on a fortnight ago in Switzerland.
Trump invited the released hostages to the White House for an event broadcast as part of the Republican National Convention in August, and said at the time that the effort has been a priority for his administration. "I am very pleased to inform you all that we brought back more than 50 hostages from 22 different countries. We worked very hard on this, Ambassador O'Brien and others. I will tell you that we are very proud of the work we did," Trump said during the convention event.
The United Nations has called Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 80 percent of the 30 million people in need of assistance. The conflict is rooted in the failed political transition that was to bring stability to the country following the Arab Spring that forced its former authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abd Rabbuh Mansour al-Hadi, in 2011.
The conflict in Yemen finally broke out in 2014, when the Hutu movement staged a coup d'état against the government of the capital, led by Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi. A year later, the intervention of the international coalition, consisting mainly of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, intensified a year later with the intervention of the Arab coalition, consisting mainly of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
