Analysts told The New Arab that the move is part of a wider effort by the DRC to seek US support to fight Rwandan-backed rebels
The Democratic Republic of the Congo will be moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in what analysts argue is an effort to "court" the United States to help its war effort against the M23 in the country's east.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi announced the planned relocation on Thursday during an official visit to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said both countries would take steps towards making that happen.
The move comes as the DRC's military struggles to contain the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group, which has seized and continues to hold large parts of the country’s volatile, mineral-rich east, including the provincial capitals of Goma and Bukavu.
According to Owen Bonertz, Africa Editor at intelligence platform Factal, the reason behind Tshisekedi's decision had to do with the "courting" of Washington in order to obtain "American defence assurances in their war against the M23".
"In general, the DRC is trying to move towards the United States for some sort of guarantee of weapons or more direct military aid in their war against M23, and this Israeli announcement is kind of an easy, symbolic way for the DRC to make Trump happy in this instance," Bonertz told The New Arab.
Bonertz said US policy towards the DRC had shifted since Donald Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025, citing the lifting of restrictions on cooperation imposed over the country’s record of using child soldiers in conflict, alongside new US investment in its mining sector.
The mining agreement was part of a broader US push to reduce China’s dominance of strategic mineral supply chains, he said, adding that closer ties among the three countries could also bring further "positive impacts" for US and Israeli mining interests in the DRC.
The embassy move is the latest in a series of international relocations following the United States’ 2018 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy there.
Colombia announced plans to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem in recent weeks, joining Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay, which have established embassies in the city. Argentina’s President Javier Milei has also pledged to move his country’s embassy.
Jerusalem’s status remains contested: Israel initially occupied and later annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war, while Palestinians claim it as the capital of a future independent state.
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