The U.S. State Department said it takes “full responsibility” for “hastily” altering and then presenting a map of Africa at the 26th International AIDS Conference this week. The map mislabeled every country it highlighted.
Reuters, which found a watermark in the map image that suggests it may have been generated with OpenAI technology, reported: “The map showed Nigeria, where the U.S. currently has several hundred troops deployed, as landlocked in the Sahara Desert. Mozambique, which is in southeastern Africa, was relocated to the Horn of Africa, while Ivory Coast in West Africa was placed on the other side of the continent.”
In a statement, the State Department said: “We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners.”
The State Department said it takes “full responsibility” for “hastily” altering and then presenting a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference that mislabeled every single country it highlighted.
An analysis by Reuters found a watermark in the map image that suggests it was… pic.twitter.com/PORJNHO9RF
— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 30, 2026
Marianne Williamson, a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, responded to the map by writing: “The administration replaced experts with fools at every opportunity. The level of ineptitude is staggering.”
Former U.S. diplomat Alan Eyre, the first-ever Persian language spokesperson at the State Department (a position formed in 2011 to communicate with Iranians), replied: “On the plus side, it was the right continent.”
[NOTE: In March 2025, when the Trump administration canceled 83% of USAID contracts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said 5,200 canceled contracts “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve (and in some cases even harmed) the core national interests of the United States.” USAID implements the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, which has had a major impact in Africa.]
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
In…
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2025
PEPFAR funding has since become part of broader negotiations between the administration and some African governments.
WUSA9, a CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., reported in May 2026 that some of the African countries that had received U.S. funds via PEPFAR were presented with new health agreements from the U.S. State Department and were asked, in exchange for the funding, to provide “specimen collection, data sharing, access to sensitive information.”
Officials in Zambia alleged that the U.S. government also wanted rights to its minerals in exchange for PEPFAR funding.
Zambia’s Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe said the U.S. offered $2 billion over five years in a proposed agreement, but asserted that the deal would violate Zambians’ right to privacy. Haimbe also said that a deal must be “uncoupled” from minerals access. (The State Department says it does not disclose details of bilateral negotiations.)
According to The New York Times: “Zambia is one of the world’s major copper producers, and also has huge reserves of minerals like lithium and cobalt.” Approximately 1.3 million people in Zambia rely on daily H.I.V. treatment that is provided through PEPFAR.
Responding to the map mistakes, former Obama NSC staffer Tommy Vietor replied: “Great work here @marcorubio.”