The UN Security Council ended 15 years of peacekeeping operations in Haiti on Tuesday, voicing regret that the country is still saddled with huge economic, political and social woes. The United Nations first sent peacekeepers to Haiti after then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by the army in 2004 under the pressure of a popular uprising.
In 2017 those soldiers were replaced by a UN police mission whose numbers dropped gradually from 1,300 to 600 and are now to be replaced by a scaled down political mission.
Haiti today remains the poorest country in the Americas, plagued by political instability.
Over the past year it has sunk deeper into political crisis as anti-corruption protests demanding President Jovenel Moise's resignation roil the Caribbean nation.
On Tuesday the US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, said Haiti is at a crossroads.
"We urge Haiti's political, economic, and civil society stakeholders to work peacefully to address the most pressing economic and social challenges facing the country," Craft said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019