Sanaa - Hundreds of people are missing after three boats with a total of some 400 African migrants on board capsized on Saturday near Yemen.
Two boats carrying some 300 migrants capsized in the Red Sea and only some 30 people have been rescued, according to Laila Nassif, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Yemen.
In another incident, a boat carrying 120 migrants capsized in the Arabian Sea and 80 people have been rescued, he said, adding that bad weather had hampered rescue efforts and the missing were feared dead.
All of the three boats had set off from Somalia. Many Somali migrants try to reach Yemen via the sea, but some drown while others are attacked by pirates.
Meanwhile, the shipping routes near Somalia have become increasingly dangerous due to the rising spread of piracy. Many countries have stationed military vessels in the area to provide protection for their nation's shippers.
Somali pirates on Thursday released a Danish-operated ship with 13 crew members after seizing it in November last year in the Gulf of Aden.
Andrew Mwangura, the East Africa coordinator of Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP), said the CEC Future was released after an unknown ransom was paid.
The crew, most of whom are Russian, were unharmed and transported to Oman under the escort of a Russian warship.
Mr Mwangura said the freighter, hijacked on 7 November last year, was heading from the Middle East to Asia and flying the national flag of the Bahamas.
The surge in attacks has prompted foreign warships to establish a security corridor in the gulf patrolled by an international coalition of warships.
The United States is pushing for the establishment of a UN peacekeeping force in war-torn Somalia, but United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon said last month that the time was not ripe for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the Horn of Africa country simply because there was no peace to keep at present.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to adopt a US-drafted resolution that puts a decision on whether to establish the operation in off until June.
