United Nations ? Sudan ordered at least 10 humanitarian groups expelled from Darfur on Wednesday after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the country’s president.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the action “represents a serious setback to lifesaving operations in Darfur” and urged Sudan to reverse its decision, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

Aid groups protested, saying they had no connection to the court and that their absence could lead to a crisis for more than 2 million war-weary Sudanese who need such basics as shelter, food and clean water.

“It is absurd that we as an independent organization are caught up in a political and judicial process,” the operational director of Medecins Sans Frontieres Holland, Arjan Hehenkamp, said in a statement expressing outrage that more than 200,000 of its patients will be left without essential medical care.

Sudan’s order was announced after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha confirmed that 10 “associations” were asked to stop operating “because they violated laws and regulations.”

“Whenever an organization takes humanitarian aid as a cover to achieve a political agenda that affects the security of the county and its stability, measures are to be taken by law to protect the country and its interests,” he said.

The nongovernmental aid groups ordered out were Oxfam, CARE, MSF-Holland, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the International Rescue Committee, Action Contre la Faim, Solidarites and CHF International.

The Sudan Media Center said two Sudanese organizations, the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development and the Khartoum Amal Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence, were also expelled, saying they cooperated with the court.

U.N. officials said about 76 international groups had been operating in Darfur, but the 10 aid groups ordered to leave did most of the work.