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LISA MULLINS: The United Nations is pleading with Sudan to reconsider. Yesterday, the government of Sudan began expelling 13 foreign aid groups from the western region of Darfur. The order came hours after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president. He's accused of orchestrating atrocities in Darfur. The UN says the expulsions will cause irrevocable damage to humanitarian operations there. The World's Katy Clark has the story.

KATY CLARK: Some 2 million people in Darfur rely on groups such as Oxfam, Care, and Save the Children for food, shelter, and medical supplies. But those groups and many of the world's other leading aid agencies, are no longer allowed to work in the arid, war-torn region. The government in Khartoum revoked their registration to operate in Darfur. The aid workers are now in the process of pulling out. Sarah Jacobs of Save the Children worries about what the pullout will mean for those they're leaving behind.

SARAH JACOBS: We support 50,000 children, trying to protect them from abuse, from physical and sexual violence, trying to get them back in school. These are very traumatized children, many of them.

CLARK: Jacobs says if aid groups aren't allowed to continue their work, life is going to get even worse for these kids. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called the move by President Omar Al-Bashir to expel aid groups a “serious setback to life-saving operations in Darfur.” The UN, United States, and European Union are all appealing to Sudan to reconsider. The expulsions began yesterday, shortly after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for President Bashir. Bashir is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Bashir's administration claims that aid groups targeted had been providing information to the ICC. Care's Elizabeth McGlocklin rejects that claim.

ELIZABETH MCGLOCKLIN: We're not a political organization and neither are any of the others. I think I can probably speak for all of these agencies that no one was assisting the ICC.

CLARK: Sudan's President dismisses the war crimes charges against him, and his government is refusing to hand him over to the international court. Still, Khartoum says the expulsion of aid workers has nothing to do with the arrest warrant. Akuei Bona Malwal is a Sudanese government official.

AKUEI BONA MALWAL: It's a coincidence. But nevertheless, I think if they have violated their work permit, that's what happens. We hope that within the coming days whatever they were offering to the people of Darfur will be replaced by other agencies.

CLARK: But Care's Elizabeth McGlocklin says there's no guarantee of that.

MCGLOCKLIN: I hope, and I'm sure that every other NGO hopes, that the NGOs that are going to remain can take these distributions over immediately. But it's not so easy as that. It's a massive logistics operation.

CLARK: And the Sudanese government is warning that more aid workers could be kicked out in the coming days. There have been unconfirmed reports that NGO staff have been held at gunpoint on their way out of Sudan. Meantime, UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity say Sudanese security forces are taking laptops and phones from charity offices in Darfur and Khartoum. For The World, this is Katy Clark.

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