Hundreds of people are missing when three boats with a total of some 400 African migrants on board capsized on Saturday near Yemen, a U.N. official said.

Two boats carrying some 300 migrants capsized in the Red Sea and only some 30 people have been rescued, said Laila Nassif, head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Yemen.

In another incident, a boat carrying 120 migrants capsized in the Arabian Sea and 80 people have been rescued, he said.

All of the three boats were set off from Somalia. The bad weather hampered the rescue efforts and the missing are feared dead, he added.

Many African migrants are trying to reach Yemen on the sea, most of them from Somalia, but some died of drowning or being attacked by pirates.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)