In a separate case, the court in the southeastern province of Hadramout handed jail terms of 12 years each against six Somalis convicted of piracy, the agency said.

The three Africans sentenced to death were from Kenya, Tanzania and Somalia, Saba added, without saying what kind of drugs they had smuggled.

Yemen has stepped up security measures as it faces Shiite rebels in the north, separatists in the south and a resurgent wing of Al-Qaeda, which in December claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound airliner.