GOSHEN — Members of a youth group from a Goshen Church are stranded in Haiti after protests and riots broke out.

The riots are over a sharp increase in gas prices. Thirteen high school age students and five adult leaders from River Oaks Community church have been in Haiti since last Monday on a mission trip.

They were supposed to fly back Monday. Church members are praying that a flight out may be available later this week. Students and adult leaders from River Oaks Community Church had been in Haiti since last Monday.

Members of the student ministry had been outside of Port-au-Prince visiting orphanages, serving meals and working on painting projects.

Monday, they were supposed to make a drive to the Port-au-Prince airport to catch a plane back, but demonstrations broke out over gas prices in the country creating unsafe travel conditions.

Flights out of the airport were halted.

“The bigger issue is actually physically getting to the airport at this point. Where they are at they’re fine, they are perfectly safe and so we we’re just kind of in this waiting pattern, to try and praying that things deescalate a little bit,” said Pastor Drew Richey.

The student group is made up of high school age students from the Middlebury, Northridge, Elkhart Concord and Goshen school systems.

“The kids were able to call their parents yesterday and have a conversation, a short conversation, with their parents. Generally in good spirits, you know a little home sick, but so they are definitely ready to come here and we’re ready to get them home,” said Richey.

Attempts get to get a flight out of Haiti have been hit or miss up to this point, but right now plans are in the works that they will catch a flight out of Haiti on Thursday morning and fly into Chicago’s O’Hare airport around 7 p.m.

“Right now we have them scheduled to get home on Thursday, as long as the situation deescalates enough for them to able to safely travel to the airport,” said Richey.

Sunday a prayer service was held at the church for a quick and safe return for the students and their adult leaders.

Protests

Looters pillaged burned and vandalized shops in Haiti’s capital Sunday following two days of violent protests over the government’s attempt to raise fuel prices.

Journalists saw young men stripping shelves bare in some supermarkets that were charred from the protests. Several bodies lay among debris scattered in the streets.

With the situation still chaotic, the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince on Sunday warned U.S. citizens to shelter in place. It noted that many airline flights had been cancelled and said, “The airport has limited food and water available.”

“Telecommunications services, including Internet and phone lines, have been affected throughout Haiti,” the embassy added. “It may be difficult to reach people through normal communication methods.”

American Airlines, which had canceled 10 flights since Saturday, said three of its planes had left Sunday from Port-au-Prince and the northern city of Cap-Haitien bound for Miami and New York. Dozens of people remained stranded at the airport in Port-au-Prince, unable to return to their hotels or other accommodations due to the blockage of streets and lack of transportation.

The cancellation of flights stranded church groups and volunteers from a number of U.S. states, including South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

Chapin United Methodist Church in South Carolina posted online that its mission team was safe but stranded. Marcy Kenny, assimilation minister for the church, told The State newspaper that the group hoped the unrest would abate enough for them to safely make it to the airport.

A North Carolina doctor and his son were part of another medical mission group that was unable to leave. Shelley Collins told WRAL-TV that her husband, James, and their son made it to an airport but could not fly out.

Police Director-General Michel-Ange Gedeon ordered officers to crack down on what he called “bandits who disturb the peace and security of the country.”

At least three people were killed in protests Friday, and police said the bodies of four people were found Sunday in the streets of the Delmas district, though they didn’t say if that was related to the protests.

The government on Saturday scrapped plans to raise fuel prices to 38 percent to 51 percent.

Source: WSBT