cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we begin this hour with the escalating crisis in sudan and the emergency evacuation of u. s government personnel and their families about 100. us special operations forces carried out the overnight mission today. the u. s embassy in khartoum is closed. the decision to evacuate personnel comes after a week of heavy fighting between sudan s military and a rival paramilitary group more than 400. people have been killed, including one american state department estimates estimates there are about 16,000 americans in sudan. most are dual nationals, our correspondents, our position here and around the world to bring you all the angles of this developing story. let s begin with cnn s am kylie live from djibouti. sam djibouti s international airport is struggling to keep up with the sudden increase in flight volume. do this mass exodus from sudan. what more can you tell us about that? well, jim, it s not only the pressure, they say local off
local officials are saying they ve got them. they re hosting militaries from 11 different countries. that s including the united states. that, of course, has got a substantial military base here in djibouti, but on top of that, the airspace over sudan it s closed that saying that that therefore having to cope with civilian traffic that is increased through djibouti in space. now that is all coming at a time when the united states has been in the vanguard jim of this series now of evacuations, mostly, but not entirely of embassy personnel from different countries around the world. the united states led the field with this extraordinary operation involving 100 or so special forces troops. three helicopters , at least flying via addis ababa, where they refueled and then very slow and low critically into khartoum, the sudanese capital, where they rescued 70 plus diplomats and their families, plus a few foreigners have been co located. with those diplomats effectively