PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – President Jovenel Moise Wednesday called for peace in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, which is also celebrating its 216th anniversary of independence.

In a New Year’s message, Moise, who has come under increasing pressures from opposition parties to step down amid allegations of corruption, said that 2019 has been a year “lost because of our mistakes and our struggles without grandeur”.

Moise, who came to power in 2017, said that like the previous year, 2019 has ended leaving the country facing the same challenges.

“Only the will to live together can break the instability and create an era of peace and prosperity beneficial to all.

“In 2020, let us pledge to break this cycle of uncertainty, to restore peace in the streets and in homes, to protect our children on the way to school and in their daily lives, to fight armed gangs and to initiate this inter-Haitian dialogue so necessary and so urgent,” Moise said.

He said he was extending his hand “to all socio-political actors so that together we can offer a better country to the millions of fellow citizens who expect from us a big overshoot”.

In recent weeks, Moise has been holding talks with some opposition political parties in a bid to establish a government of national unity.