{"id":123329,"date":"2026-07-31T15:27:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map"},"modified":"2026-08-02T02:12:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T02:12:46","slug":"state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map","title":{"rendered":"State Department&#8217;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. <\/strong> <\/span><b>The US State Department on Thursday said its use of a map that incorrectly labeled all the countries it identified on a map of Africa at an international conference this week was \u201can unfortunate error.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The map was shown during an event at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro. It highlighted six countries on the continent: Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Cote d\u2019Ivoire, Malawi, and Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p>Not one of them was correctly identified by lines pointing from the names to the positions on the map.<\/p>\n<p>It showed coastal Nigeria as landlocked. Mozambique, which is in the southeast of the continent, was shown in the Horn of Africa. Cote d\u2019Ivoire was shown on the wrong side of the continent.<\/p>\n<p>A photo of the errant map was shared in a Substack post from AIDS expert Emily Bass. According to an analysis from Reuters, the map contained \u201can artificial intelligence watermark that \u2060signals it was made with OpenAI tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A State Department spokesperson said Thursday that \u201cthis was an unfortunate error caused by a team member who hastily altered the slide deck immediately before the presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Since President Donald Trump took office again, the State Department has significantly cut its global health funding and underwent a restructuring which has seen a significant number of career experts lose their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron Hudson, a former State Department and NSC official on Africa, said that the mistake is \u201ca reflection of what happens when you fire 1\u20443 of the State Department, eliminate multiple layers of bureaucracy and have too junior staff performing work under-supervised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere isn\u2019t just a cost savings when eviscerating staff and expertise. There\u2019s a real cost in reputation and effectiveness,\u201d he posted on X.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI suspect many people don\u2019t actually care because they say it\u2019s Africa, but the same thing is happening with teams trying to negotiate nuclear deals with Iran. That should concern everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Uganda<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. The US State Department on Thursday said its use of a map that incorrectly labeled all the countries it identified on a map of Africa at an international conference this week was \u201can unfortunate error.\u201d The map was shown during an event at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":123328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,258],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-123329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-to-homepage","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>State Department&#039;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Uganda. The US State Department on Th ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State Department&#039;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Uganda. The US State Department on Th ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T15:27:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-02T02:12:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"State Department&#8217;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T15:27:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-02T02:12:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\"},\"wordCount\":363,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\",\"name\":\"State Department'S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map - Uganda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-31T15:27:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-02T02:12:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The US State Department on Th ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"State Department'S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"State Department&#8217;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\",\"name\":\"Uganda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"State Department'S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map - Uganda","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The US State Department on Th ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"State Department'S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The US State Department on Th ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map","og_site_name":"Uganda","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-07-31T15:27:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-02T02:12:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"State Department&#8217;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map","datePublished":"2026-07-31T15:27:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-02T02:12:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map"},"wordCount":363,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg","keywords":["uganda"],"articleSection":["all news","community","to-homepage"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map","name":"State Department'S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map - Uganda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-31T15:27:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-02T02:12:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Uganda. The US State Department on Th ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2026\/08\/sm_1785635946.156139.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"State Department'S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/state-departments-unfortunate-error-on-africa-map#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"State Department&#8217;S Unfortunate Error on Africa Map"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/","name":"Uganda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123343,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123329\/revisions\/123343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}