US State Department apologises for wrongly labelling Nigeria on Africa map

The United States Department of State has apologised after Nigeria was incorrectly identified on a map of Africa displayed during an official presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The map, which highlighted six African countries including Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Cameroon, contained multiple geographical errors. Nigeria was incorrectly shown as a landlocked country, while the other nations were also misplaced on the continent.

The error, which drew widespread criticism after images of the map circulated online, prompted an apology from the State Department.

“This was an unfortunate error caused by a team member who hastily altered the slide deck immediately before the presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference,” a State Department spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added, “We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners.”

The incident has sparked renewed debate over the quality of official U.S. government presentations and its engagement with African countries. According to Reuters, an analysis of the presentation suggested the map carried an artificial intelligence watermark indicating it was created using OpenAI tools, although the State Department has not attributed the error to artificial intelligence.

Reacting to the incident, Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. State Department and National Security Council official for Africa, linked the mistake to recent staffing cuts within the department.

“This is a reflection of what happens when you fire one-third of the State Department, eliminate multiple layers of bureaucracy and have too junior staff performing work under-supervised,” Hudson wrote on X.

“There isn’t just a cost savings when eviscerating staff and expertise. There’s a real cost in reputation and effectiveness,” he added.

The erroneous map was displayed during an event at the international AIDS 2026 Conference in Rio de Janeiro before the mistake was publicly acknowledged by the U.S. State Department.