Administration officials presented a map of Africa where every single highlighted country was mislabeled at a global conference in Brazil this week.
The US State Department included the map as part of their presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro to highlight agreements made with different countries.
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The map of Africa highlighted six countries, including Nigeria, which it showed as a landlocked nation north of the actual nation of Nigeria. Uganda, while close to the general vicinity of Uganda, is the wrong shape on the State Department map. Malawi is also the wrong shape and is to the west of its real location.
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Cameroon and Mozambique are both shown on the opposite side of the continent from their real locations.
Last, perhaps most egregiously, Côte d’Ivoire is shown as a landlocked nation in Southeast Africa despite the fact that the word “coast” is in its name. The country, with a French name, is far northwest of the location shown in the State Department map, just like all the other former French colonies in continental Africa.
The State Department said that it took “full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners” in a statement.
A watermark on the map shows that it was created by AI, and Reuters believes that it was made with OpenAI tools.
“Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work,” Matt Petit of the think tank Atlantic Council said.
The map comes as the Trump administration has severely cut funding for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, cuts that are believed to have already resulted in 700,000 deaths.
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