Sudan Rebels Seize Briton, 3 Americans

Three Americans and a Briton were kidnaped from their homes in southern Sudan by armed men identifying themselves as Sudanese rebels, a relief official said today.

“We do not know where they were taken to, neither have we received any information as to their whereabouts,” said Dan Bitrus, executive director of the Nairobi-based Assn. of Christian Resource Organizations Serving Sudan.

Bitrus said the abductions occurred early Tuesday in Mundri, about 100 miles northwest of the southern city of Juba.

“The armed men identified themselves as members of the SPLA, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army,” Bitrus said.

3 Relief Workers, 1 Priest

Three of the victims, two American teachers and one British nurse, worked for the relief organization, Bitrus said. He identified them as Steve Anderson, who was born in Minneapolis; Katherine Taylor, 32, of Johnson City, Tenn., and 29-year-old British nurse Heather Sinclair.

Bitrus identified the fourth victim as Mark Nikkel, an American Episcopal priest.

Nikkel’s mother, Rosie Nikkel, said from California that Nikkel is from Reedley, Calif. She said she was notified of his abduction by Episcopal Church authorities in New York who told her that SPLA rebels snatched Nikkel “from the Bible school where he was teaching.”

Recent Rebel Warning

Bitrus said Anderson and Taylor were teachers at Bishop Gwynne College in Mundri, which is run by the Episcopal Church of the Sudan. He said Anderson’s passport was issued in Seattle and Taylor’s in New Orleans.

A Sudanese security official in Khartoum said rebels recently told relief agencies operating in southern Sudan to stop any activities except in coordination with the SPLA.

The SPLA, led by renegade Col. John Garang, took up arms against the Muslim-dominated Sudanese government in 1982, demanding greater autonomy for the predominantly Christian south.

In 1984, three Roman Catholic missionary priests--an American, a Briton and a Sudanese--were kidnaped by rebels in southern Sudan and released after several weeks.