US apologises after Nigeria is wrongly labelled on Africa map at AIDS conference

The United States State Department has apologised after Nigeria and several other African countries were wrongly placed on a map shown during a presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The presentation reportedly showed Nigeria as a landlocked country in the Sahara rather than in West Africa. Other countries listed in the slide, including Mozambique, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Cameroon, were also misplaced.

The error drew criticism after people at the conference shared images of the slide. The State Department said a staff member had hurriedly changed the presentation shortly before the session.

“We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners,” the department said, according to the reports.

Premium Times said Reuters reported that the slide appeared to carry a watermark linked to OpenAI tools. OpenAI was said to be investigating the report, while the State Department did not blame the error on artificial intelligence.

The mistake came during an event on global health funding, making the wrong placement of Nigeria and other African countries more damaging for officials trying to explain health programmes involving the continent.

Sources: Daily Post, Premium Times