A map of Africa created by the United States Government mistakenly identified all the countries on the continent during a presentation by the Department of State, responsible for foreign policy, at an international conference held this week in Brazil. The episode caused a stir among attendees, who captured images of the slide and shared them on the internet.
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The map showed Nigeria, where the United States has several hundred soldiers deployed, as a landlocked country located in the Sahara Desert. Mozambique, located in southeastern Africa, appeared moved to the Horn of Africa, while Ivory Coast, in West Africa, had been placed on the other side of the continent.
Reuters reviewed a video of the presentation, held as part of the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, in which the incorrect map appears halfway through a presentation on the new health agreements of the Department of State, headed by Marco Rubio. A Reuters analysis determined that the map image included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark indicating it was created with OpenAI tools. The company said it was investigating the case.
The Department of State stated that it assumed “full responsibility” for the confusion caused and explained that the map was created by a team member who hastily modified the presentation shortly before the event.
Screenshots of the map first appeared in a Substack post by AIDS expert Emily Bass and were then widely shared on LinkedIn, where one of the posts accumulated about 40,000 views. “Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where the countries of Africa are and did not bother to check their work,” wrote Matt Petit, an artificial intelligence and geopolitics specialist at the Atlantic Council.
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In a statement, U.S. authorities declared: “We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused among attendees, including our African partners.”
The presenter at the conference was Jeff Graham, the United States’ chief envoy for health affairs, responsible for overseeing the initiative known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Graham did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. authorities assured that despite the incident with the map, the discussions held during the conference were “substantial and constructive” and reiterated their commitment to the fight against AIDS.
Last year, the Trump Administration’s decision to temporarily suspend funding while a review was conducted interrupted aid programs worldwide, although PEPFAR’s core activities, such as the supply of life-saving medications, have largely resumed. The United States is cutting other areas of spending, including prevention and epidemiological surveillance, and plans to gradually phase out the program in South Africa.
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