Nearly 1,000 UK holidaymakers are set to be flown home from The Gambia due to growing political unrest.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is now warning against “all but essential travel” to the west African nation due to potential military intervention following the Presidential elections on 1 December.
The holiday company will lay on additional flights from the capital Banjul on Wednesday to bring 985 package holiday customers home.
An additional 2,500 “flight-only” customers will then be contacted and offered the earliest possible flights back to the UK.
The reaction comes after Gambian President Yahya Jammeh declared a state of emergency after refusing to hand power to opposition leader Adama Barrow, who won last month’s election.
State television said the emergency would prevent a power vacuum while the supreme court rules on Mr Jammeh’s petition challenging the election result.
Regional leaders have threatened to intervene militarily if Mr Jammeh does not step down and a senior Nigerian army source said it and other West African states were preparing a military force.