A map of Africa provided by the US government was incorrectly labeled

A map of Africa provided by the US government was incorrectly labeled

during a State Department presentation at a global conference, causing a stir among attendees. Reuters reviewed a video of the presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro. The erroneous map appeared roughly halfway through a presentation about the State Department's new health agreements. Reuters analysis revealed that the map image included in the presentation featured an AI watermark, indicating it was created using OpenAI tools. The State Department stated it took "full responsibility" for the confusion and that the map was created by a team member who hastily altered the slides before the event. The map, used during a presentation on new health agreements, contained serious geographical errors. For example, Nigeria (a coastal state in West Africa) was depicted as a landlocked country in the Sahara. The US currently maintains several hundred troops in Nigeria. Mozambique, located in southeastern Africa, was mistakenly placed in the Horn of Africa, while Ivory Coast in West Africa was moved to the other side of the continent. The speaker was Jeff Graham, the top US health official for PEPFAR. The error sparked online criticism; one expert remarked that whoever made it “didn’t know where the countries of Africa are and didn’t bother to double-check their work.” Source: US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference, Reuters