An armed group entered an Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) compound in southern Sudan March 8, killing a woman and a 12-year-old girl from a nearby village and taking four local ADRA workers hostage, report international news agencies.

Reports of the attack are sketchy; officials at ADRA’s international headquarters have indicated that ADRA is working very closely with the United Nations and other appropriate organizations and will be monitoring the situation carefully.

Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, meeting at the church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, had special prayer March 13 for the families impacted by the tragedy.  They also prayed for a quick, peaceful resolution to the hostage situation.

ADRA, an independent humanitarian agency present in more than 120 countries, has operated health care, education and other development projects in southern Sudan since 1984.  Sudan has been torn by civil strife for almost 20 years; an estimated two million people have already lost their lives in what has become known as one of the world’s most entrenched trouble spots.