For the third time in three years, the U.S. military is preparing to evacuate the staff of an American embassy as violence overtakes a foreign capital.

The Pentagon is moving more troops to the African nation of Djibouti to prepare for a possible evacuation of U.S. Embassy staff in Sudan, where fierce fighting between two warring generals has led to the swift deterioration of conditions in the capital according to two officials.

Senior U.S. officials acknowledged that it would not be easy to get embassy staff out, let alone the estimated 19,000 American citizens who are believed to be in the country. The international airport in the capital, Khartoum, has been the target of heavy shelling, leaving destroyed planes littering the tarmac. Sudan’s air space is also closed.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan suspended operations on August 31, 2021. Right now, Qatar represents American interests in Afghanistan, with a U.S. interest section within its embassy in Kabul to provide certain consular services, and “monitor the condition and security of U.S. diplomatic facilities in Afghanistan.” As of August 2022, the U.S. embassy building remains abandoned and unused, according to a report by CNN’s Clarissa Ward. “It’s essentially completely locked down, you can’t get in there at all,” she said.

In 2022, U.S. Embassy staff in Kyiv, Ukraine first moved to Lviv, a city in western Ukraine on February 14, before relocating to Poland on February 21. In mid-May, the U.S. reopened the embassy with a limited staff.

Kabul, Kyiv, and Khartoum. It all seems to go bad in foreign capitals that start with the letter K.