South Sudan Rebels Free 2 U.S. Nuns

Roman Catholic missionaries received word today of the release of two American nuns captured by rebels Monday in war-ravaged southern Sudan.

A spokeswoman for Nairobi’s Maryknoll mission said she received a message saying the two nuns, Sean Underwood, 43, a Medical Mission of Mary pilot from Portsmouth, N.H., and Nancy Lyons, 49, hometown unknown, were released Thursday afternoon.

They were captured Monday as they drove through a war zone to deliver emergency food to famine-stricken villages near Juba. Others, driving in a second car, got away and reported the kidnaping.

The spokeswoman would not say who sent the message, but the mission was believed to be in contact with a spokesman for the rebel Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army in neighboring Ethiopia.

Walked to Freedom

Joan Brooks, Underwood’s sister, said the State Department called her family in Voorheesville, N.Y., to confirm the release.

“(Underwood) arrived in Juba, which was 26 miles from wherever she was being held, some time early this morning,” Brooks said from her home in Voorheesville.

Juba is the provincial capital of civil war-wracked southern Sudan.

Brooks said the two nuns had to walk to Juba after being released but were unharmed and in good health.

“She knew she was in a dangerous area,” Brooks said of her sister.