Germany, Nigeria, Norway, and the United Nations organised one of the year’s largest pledging conferences for Africa’s Lake Chad region (north-east Nigeria and parts of Niger, Chad and Cameroon) on Monday and Tuesday in Berlin.

Robert Cruickshank, who is in charge of humanitarian programmes in Africa for UK Christian charity CAFOD, told Premier the crisis started about ten years ago due to poverty, climate change and scarce resources like land and water.

“If you are a farmer trying to practice agriculture with very little water, you suffer and need to think about changing what you’re growing,” he said.

“[If you are] somebody who raises cattle, goats or camels, you need water for your very existence and as that has diminished, making a living in that area has become harder.”

According to CAFOD, the crisis that has impacted 11 million people and displaced 2 million has been made worse by religious conflict.

Cruickshank added: “Christians and Muslims have lived peacefully together for many decades but people are now exploiting religious differences around the access to resources.

“They’ve turned what essentially is a conflict about access to resources into a religious conflict.”

He said CAFOD has been working with both Muslim and Christians to bring about peace.

The high-level conference focuses on humanitarian assistance, civilian protection, crisis prevention and…

A £1.8 million Government-funded pilot programme to repair and enhance England’s listed places of worship was launched by the Heritage Minister, Michael Ellis, at St Ann’s Church in Manchester on Monday.

Churches, synagogues and mosques can apply for up to £10,000 each.

The programme comes after last year’s “Taylor Review: Sustainability of English Churches and Cathedrals”, which found that church buildings played a “vital role” in providing public services and a sense of identity to communities across the country.

The 18-month scheme will be run by Historic England and will test the recommendations made in the Taylor Review across the largely urban area of Greater Manchester. A second pilot will run in rural Suffolk.

A number of listed Anglican churches have been identified that make good candidates for repair funding to enhance community engagement. They include St Thomas, Halliwell, which is said to have great potential to work in partnership with the local school but is in need of modernisation work.

Dr David Walker, Bishop of Manchester said historic church buildings are worth investing in.

“Church buildings are an important and much-loved part of the heritage of Greater Manchester.

“Many are also well used to provide much-needed community facilities. We are delighted that Manchester has been chosen for this pilot to help fund urgent repairs in some of our…

The MP for Birkenhead announced he would sit as an independent on Thursday after 40 years representing Labour in the Wirral seat.

Field said he has been subjected to online abuse since his decision, with one user calling him a “Tory rent boy” who should “f*** off and die”.

An email sent to him read: “The claim of antisemitism is obviously bogus AND YOU KNOW IT. Israel is the purest [evil] on earth and you are siding with them.”

Field told The Mail on Sunday: “Sadly, this provides a snapshot of the bile that exists beneath public life.”

Meanwhile, the Labour leader has said Field did not have to resign the Labour whip over the anti-Semitism row.

While Jeremy Corbyn said he was “sorry” Field had resigned, and condemned bullying, he insisted that there had to be “democratic debate within the party”.

Asked about Mr Field’s claims of bullying in the party, Corbyn said he did not know what the claims were.

“I invite all MPs to take part in the discussion and the debate,” he said.

“Obviously bullying and intimidation have no place whatsoever in any political party, particularly the Labour Party, but there has to be democratic debate within the party.”

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Thought to be the only free UK-based Christian-made dating app for believers, SALT is already open to pre-registrations ahead of an official launch later this month.

Founder, Paul Rider said he conceived the idea after sharing negative experiences of Christian dating services with his friends.

He told Premier: “I think there was a general consensus that there’s a gap between what was already on offer for Christian and what people want and expect from a dating app.”

SALT is being presented as an alternative to meeting people through church where “pressure and unrealistic expectations” can sometimes leave Christians disappointed, the app’s inventors say.

They believe Christians can struggle to meet anyone in their own church circles but SALT is intended to help them widened their search and take the awkwardness out of dating.

Research published earlier this year shows 63 per cent of single church-going women have not been on a date with a fellow member of their congregation in at least 24 months.

Mr Rider continued: “We thought that if we could provide something that was going to be completely free of charge, was based here in the UK and had a double opt-in – so that you can only send and receive messages from people that you’ve both chosen to match with – that could be well-received.”

Click here to listen to Premier’s Tola Mbakwe speaking with Paul Rider at SALT: