SANAA: An exchange of nearly 900 prisoners from Yemen’s civil war will start on Friday, one day later than previously announced, a government official said on Wednesday.

No reason was given for the delay to the three-day exchange, in which prisoners will be flown between cities in Yemen and its oil-rich neighbour, Saudi Arabia.

The biggest prisoner swap since 2020 is taking place after a delegation from Saudi Arabia, which launched a military intervention in 2015, held talks with Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels this week in an attempt to end hostilities.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by direct and indirect causes in a war that left many on the brink of famine in a country which was already the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest.

A six-month United Nations-brokered truce that officially lapsed in October is still largely holding.

“It has been confirmed that the exchange process will start on Friday morning,” tweeted Majid Fadael, spokesman for the government delegation negotiating the exchange.

The prisoner transfers “will last for three days, starting on Friday and ending on Sunday”, said Fadael, revising the timetable he announced on Tuesday.