A DAD who arrived back in the UK from crisis-torn Gambia is fighting to get his wife and daughter out of the African country.

Gambian Ebrima Jagne, a textile engineer from Burnley, was one of around 1,000 people who arrived back at Manchester Airport yesterday on a Thomas Cook flight after the Foreign Office issued an alert on Tuesday.

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Gambia is facing a threat of military action by regional forces after its unseated president, Yahya Jammeh, refused to hand over power to his successor Adama Barrow.

Mr Jagne was comforted by fellow passengers as he left the aircraft in tears over concern for his wife, Haddytouray, and their three-month-old daughter, Ajiamina Jane.

He said: “I cannot get my daughter out. I’m desperate.

“It’s not easy at all when I leave my wife there and daughter.

“Everyone in the country feels unsafe and on edge. You don’t now what’s going to come next.”

The country’s president-elect Mr Barrow was due to be sworn into office yesterday at the Gambian embassy in neighbouring Senegal.

Mr Barrow won the December election but Mr Jammeh said he did not accept the result and refused to stand down.

It is believed around 2,500 Britons were in Gambia when the FCO issued its warning.

A group of volunteers from Darwen, who annually go out to Gambia to help poverty-stricken communities, were also due to go out there on Saturday but had their flights cancelled.

Darwen Spartans Junior Football Club president Mark Atkinson said it may be the last time the group visits the country after seven years of trips to the West African nation.

The group’s projects have included building schools, hospitals, showers and solar-powered flood lights.

Mr Atkinson said: “We are gutted because there were people coming that hadn’t gone before and its a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“What I am most concerned about though is what is going on out there.”

Gambia is a popular beach destination in winter.

When Mr Jammeh declared a 90-day national state of emergency on Tuesday British officials advised against all non-essential travel to the country.

They have since warned against all travel to the capital of Banjul.