The State Department takes full responsibility for a mislabeled map of Africa displayed during a global health conference in Brazil.
The State Department took full responsibility for a widely shared map of Africa that mislabeled every country during a presentation at the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro. The map, which was produced by a team member who hastily changed the slide deck before the event, showed Nigeria as landlocked in the Sahara desert and relocated Mozambique and Côte d’Ivoire to incorrect positions. Jeff Graham, the top US health envoy, presented the map during a discussions about the state department’s new health agreements. While the error caused a stir among attendees and online observers, the state department maintained that the discussions remained substantive and constructive. The administration announced that despite the map error, the department remains committed to the fight against Aids. This follows a period where the administration paused funding for a review last year, and the department is now scaling back spending on prevention and surveillance while planning to phase out the program in South Africa.