Mozambicans Seize American
Gunmen abducted an American nurse, an Australian and five white Zimbabweans, including a baby, from a rural mission in central Mozambique, Western diplomats and missionaries said today.
Guerrillas of the right-wing Mozambique National Resistance seized the seven at gunpoint and marched them into the bush Wednesday, a spokesman for the international missionary organization Youth With a Mission said.
The spokesman, Mike Oman, said the seven were abducted from the 1,600-acre mission farm where they worked near the town of Gondola, about 80 miles east of the Zimbabwe border.
Oman identified the American as Kindra Bryan, 29, a nurse from Texas who was stationed on the farm just four days before.
The Australian was Roy Perkins, about 30, who ran the farm. The Zimbabweans were Perkins’ wife, Patricia, Phillip and Victoria Cooper and their 18-month-old daughter, Abigail, and nurse Joan Goodman.
The Mozambique National Resistance, also known as Renamo, operates in most of Mozambique’s 10 provinces and pledges to overthrow the Marxist government of President Joaquim Chissano.
Renamo has abducted scores of foreigners but has usually freed them in neighboring countries after mediation by the Geneva-based International Committee for the Red Cross.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
