The Ugandan mission of the aid organization, Médecins Sans Frontières-Spain, has described reports that it is administering HIV/AIDS and TB drugs that are not yet approved by the country’s health ministry as “misunderstandings.”

In a statement issued in response to a report in Kampala’s New Vision newspaper, MSF-Spain’s head of mission in Uganda, Matthieu Amiraux, said the organization was holding “different meetings with technical services and local authorities to clarify the medical allegations and other related issues.”

He added: “MSF-Spain has already expressed its concern about the allegations... The misunderstandings between the organization and the local authorities in Gulu district are being addressed.

“MSF Spain hopes to achieve a positive outcome and would like to emphasize it works respecting the medical ethic and following the WHO [World Health Organization]   protocols. The organization always works for the best interest and needs of the populations it assists and has never put any person at medical risk.”

New Vision reported that the Gulu district executive had suspended MSF’s activities.

Apart from the dispute over drugs, the local government objected to MSF’s presence in camps for victims of the war against the Lord’s Resistance Army. Government policy is to provide facilities in the villages from which displaced people came.