The health ministry said the man who had arrived earlier on Sunday in the regional capital had been quickly transported to an Ebola treatment centre.

Authorities said they had tracked down all the passengers on the bus the man took to Goma from Butembo, one of the towns hardest hit by the disease.

“Because of the speed with which the patient was identified and isolated, and the identification of all the other bus passengers coming from Butembo, the risk of it spreading in the rest of the city of Goma is small,” the health ministry said in a statement.

The virus has killed more than 1,600 people in Congo and two others who returned home across the border to neighbouring Uganda.

Health experts have long feared that it could make its way to Goma, which is located on the Rwandan border.

The health ministries in Congo’s neighbours have been preparing for months for the possibility of cases, and frontline health workers already have been vaccinated.

The confirmed case announced late on Sunday in eastern Congo involves a pastor who became ill last Tuesday.

He then left Butembo on a bus, and arrived at a health centre on Sunday showing symptoms of Ebola, the health ministry said.

Violent attacks against health workers and treatment facilities have greatly compromised efforts to combat the epidemic in Butembo.

Eastern Congo is home to a myriad of armed groups, and Mai…

The £9.3m national mental health programme aims to bridge the gap between schools and colleges and NHS services.

Pupils struggling with mental health are to benefit from more joined up care and support across schools, colleges and specialist NHS services, in a national roll out of a £9.3 million training scheme.

Every school, college and alternative provision will be offered training through a series of workshops as part of the Link Programme, with the most appropriate member of staff from each put forward to take part, alongside mental health specialists.

This is designed to improve partnerships with professional NHS mental health services, raise awareness of mental health concerns and improve referrals to specialist help when needed.  The Anna Freud National Centre will lead the four-year scheme for Children and Families, backed by the multi-million-pound government investment.

Starting in September, the training will be rolled out to schools and colleges in phases over four years, being offered to up to 22,000 schools and colleges, including alternative provision settings.

The Link Programme will deliver just under 1,000 training sessions across England involving two whole-day workshops for up to 20 schools at a time to cover all 22,000 schools, encouraging collaborative work, so children do not fall between the cracks or experience poor transition between…

CSW, together with Human Rights Concern Eritrea urged members of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to renew the annual mandate made by the Eritrean Special Rapporteur (an independent expert assigned to report back on a country’s human rights record) after growing concerns that recommendations to prevent human rights violations were being ignored.

In a letter to the UN, the campaign groups highlighted the rise of persecution Christians and other religious minorities continue to face in the region, to which the HRC responded: “It is imperative that the Human Rights Council renews the Special Rapporteur’s mandate this week. A failure to do so out of political expediency would damage the reputation of the world’s premier human rights body irreparably.”

The decision to uphold the mandate is only the first step in bringing peace to Eritrea, according to CSW’s UN advisor Ms Denman.

Speaking to Premier she said: “The human rights situation in Eritrea is so severe and we are very delighted that a number of countries, some of whom we weren’t sure would support the resolution, which renews the mandate of the expert but have.

“What we do need to see is increased pressure on the country. So this new resolution not only renews the mandate, but also calls for Eritrea to cooperate fully with that mandate holder and the rest of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,…

The area is the fault line between Islamic Africa to the north and predominantly Christian Africa to the south.

Open Doors, the Christian freedom charity say general violence has increased because of a mix of poverty, unemployment, corruption and lack of governance.

However, for Christians, they have seen increasing Islamic extremism in the area as it becomes a hotspot for Islamic militant groups, some being home-grown and others being part of international terror organisations like IS and Al-Qaeda, as members often settle in states along the Sahel when they are driven out of the Middle East.

Open Doors say these ideologies are gaining popularity because they come with the provision of goods and services which the state has failed to provide and they are promising a new political order free from corruption.

Almost 30 violent Islamist groups are known to be active in the region with most committing attacks in more than one country. For example, Boko Haram has spread out from north Nigeria, across Lake Chad and into other countries.

Their ideology has infiltrated numerous splinter groups such as Islamic State West Africa Province, a group which broke away from Nigeria’s Boko Haram and targets and enslaves Christian women and girls.

At least six churches in the DRC have been burned down and two church-run clinics and health centres have been destroyed. In Mali,…

Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church (SPAC) Nation will giving away up to £100,000 to young entrepreneurs looking to start a business, to encourage more commerce to poor areas and invest in future generations.

SPAC Nation will hold its second entrepreneurs service this Sunday, building on its success from last year which saw £30,000 invested into the projects of young entrepreneurs.

This year, the initiative, which is funded by church donors, will be offering over triple the amount in investment funds.

SPAC service organiser, Pastor Henry, told Premier the project is a great way to serve their local community: “Areas which are the most economically deprived have greater crime rates and so this cash injection into businesses creates more jobs, creates opportunities, helps current businesses thrive and grow and then this eradicates poverty.

“It’s our way of contributing back to society and our local communities.” He added.

Speaking about the upcoming event, SPAC Nation Senior, Pastor Tobi Adegboyega said: “This Sunday, many young people’s lives are going to change forever for the better.”

He added: “Very generous church members have pulled together from their own pockets. At SPAC Nation we’re big fans of enterprise and we know how it can change the lives of young people. That’s why we believe in helping their entrepreneurial dreams come true.”

Pastor Henry is…