US government mislabels countries on map of Africa at global conference

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that the US State Department admitted to “an unfortunate error” after a presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro displayed a badly mislabeled map of Africa. The map appeared during a US government presentation earlier in the week, and images and videos shared by attendees drew widespread criticism online.

According to the report, the slide was shown while Jeff Graham, the top US health envoy leading the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, was discussing new US health agreements with African countries. Reuters said the map misplaced several countries, including showing Nigeria in the Sahara, putting Mozambique in the Horn of Africa, and moving Ivory Coast to the opposite side of the continent. The country borders were also depicted inaccurately.

The State Department said Thursday that the slide had been changed shortly before the event by a team member and accepted responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation caused to participants, including African partners. Reuters also reported that the image carried a watermark suggesting it may have been created with OpenAI tools; OpenAI said it was looking into the matter.

The incident matters because it occurred in a sensitive policy setting focused on HIV/AIDS cooperation. Al Jazeera noted that PEPFAR, launched under George W. Bush, has been a major source of antiretroviral support worldwide, particularly in Africa. The report also placed the error against the backdrop of Trump administration aid cuts and continuing changes to US HIV prevention and surveillance work.