Sudanese Rebels Kidnap 3 Americans and Briton

NAIROBI, Kenya — Sudanese rebels abducted three American and one British Christian aid workers from their homes in southern Sudan during an early morning raid, officials said Wednesday.

“The armed men identified themselves as members of the SPLA, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army,” said Dan Bitrus, executive director of the Nairobi-based Assn. of Christian Resource Organizations Serving Sudan (ACROSS).

A Sudanese security official in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, said he believes the kidnapings were “definitely for publicity purposes.”

Bitrus said the four were kidnaped between 12:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. Tuesday in Mundri, about 740 miles southwest of Khartoum.

“We do not know where they were taken to, neither have we received any information as to their whereabouts,” said Bitrus.

Christian Mission Group

Three of the victims, two American teachers and one British nurse, worked under the auspices of ACROSS, a relief, rehabilitation and development consortium of Christian missions that has been working in Sudan since 1972, Bitrus said.

He identified them as Steve Anderson, 31, who was born in Minneapolis; Katherine Taylor, 32, who was born in Johnson City, Tenn., and British nurse Heather Sinclair, 29.

The British Foreign Office in London said Sinclair is employed by the British relief agency Tear Fund, but was on loan to ACROSS for four months to work on a community health program.

Bitrus identified the fourth captive as Mark Nikkel, 37, an American Episcopal priest not associated with the relief organization.

Nikkel’s mother, Rosie Nikkel, said in California that Nikkel is from Reedley, Calif. She said Episcopal Church authorities in New York told her that SPLA rebels abducted Nikkel “from the bible school where he was teaching.”

Bitrus said Anderson and Taylor were teachers at the Bishop Gwynne College in Mundri, which is run by the Episcopal Church of Sudan.

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

The rebels, led by renegade Col. John Garang, took up arms against the Muslim-dominated Sudanese government in 1983, demanding greater autonomy for the predominantly Christian south.