From Democracy Digest, the daily blog of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED):

By increasing political pressures for accountability, urbanization complements two other recent trends that augur well for African governance: rapid demographic change and growing political competition, Anku and Eni-Kalu. conclude. RTWT

Russia is proposing to move toward ending the ban on selling so-called blood diamonds from the Central African Republic, a former French colony that’s struck recent military and commercial ties with Moscow, amid resistance from the U.S. and Europe, Bloomberg reports (HT:FDD).

Amid all the fascination with Russia’s inroads in Africa, why are we overlooking the case of South Africa? asks analyst Andrew S. Weiss. @andrewsweiss  It’s a fascinating story of Kremlin overreach, predatory behavior & Cold War ties that we dug into for Carnegie’s #GlobalRussia project: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/12/16/nuclear-enrichment-russia-s-ill-fated-influence-campaign-in-south-africa-pub-80597… 1/

Read the full article here.