What's happening in Africa on Monday: + Hospitalised Mandela shows 'sustained' improvement PRETORIA: Nelson Mandela shows a "sustained" improvement after more than a week in hospital battling a lung infection although his condition remains serious. Picture. Video. (SAFRICA-POLITICS-HEALTH-MANDELA)

By Jonny Hogg GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Deployment of a unique new U.N. combat force, billed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a peace enforcer for eastern Congo, is being delayed by logistical difficulties and reticence from troop contributor South Africa. An uneasy six-month peace in eastern Congo collapsed last week when clashes erupted between government troops and M23 rebels near the region's largest city Goma, days before a visit by Ban and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim.

The Central African Republic's neighbours gathered at a summit in Brazzaville on Friday proposed the creation of a special fund to stem smouldering post-coup unrest and plan elections next year. The final declaration issued at the end of the international meeting in the Republic of the Congo suggested a dedicated fund should be created to help Bangui through the transition process. The "Appeal of Brazzaville" said the fund should help "finance the preparation and holding of the electoral process" promised by Central Africa's new strongman Michel Djotodia.

Twelve activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced to 20 years behind bars for organising a demonstration have had their jail terms drastically reduced, a rights group said on Saturday. "They were sentenced to a maximum of one year. Some were sentenced to six months in jail, others to a year," Jean-Claude Katende, head of the Kinshasa-based human rights organisation ASADHO, told AFP. He added that "the fact the sentence was reduced from 20 years to a maximum of one year shows that the case against them was groundless".