Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) say the government of Myanmar, formerly Burma, had ordered it to suspend all its activities in the country, halting vital healthcare to thousands of people.
MSF, which provides primary healthcare in strife-torn western Rakhine state as well as HIV and tuberculosis treatments across the country, said on Friday the move would have a "devastating effect" on its patients.
"MSF is deeply shocked by this unilateral decision and extremely concerned about the fate of tens of thousands of patients currently under our care across the country," the group said in a statement, adding it was in discussions with the government to resume services.
It said that clinics across the country were closed on Friday for the first time in the aid group's 22-year history in the country.
"There is no other medical non-government organisation that operates at the scale of MSF with the experience and infrastructure to deliver necessary life-saving medical services," MSF said.
Myanmar's health service has been left in tatters after decades of under-funding during a military dictatorship that was replaced by a quasi-civilian regime in 2011.
MSF, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, is the largest provider of treatment for HIV and AIDS in Myanmar, with over 30,000 patients across the country.
It provides primary healthcare services in several remote areas near the border with Bangladesh where impoverished stateless Rohingya Muslim communities live under severe restriction of movement.
MSF has faced increasing pressure in recent weeks after it said it treated injured people in its clinic near the site of a reported mass killing of Rohingya that was strongly denied by the government.
The organisation, which has faced accusations of giving preferential treatment to the stateless Rohingya, said it "guided by medical ethics and the principles of neutrality and impartiality".
MSF also has programs for the treatment of tuberculosis and malaria as well as reproductive health services.
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