People protest during the opening ceremony of the 26th International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 27, 2026. (Photo by Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP)
The US State Department acknowledged “an unfortunate error” on Thursday after an inaccurate map of Africa was displayed at an AIDS conference in Brazil earlier this week.
“We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners,” a State Department spokesperson said.
A slideshow presented by the US delegation at a major international conference on AIDS earlier this week had six African countries incorrectly located.
Nigeria, for example, was shown as a landlocked country in the center of the continent, while Mozambique was placed in the Horn of Africa and Cote d’Ivoire in southern Africa.
