Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, will open an embassy in Jerusalem and become the most recent nation to relocate its diplomatic representation there, the Israeli Foreign Ministry declared on Friday.
The announcement was made just over a week after Paraguay said it will relocate its embassy to the capital of Israel.
After speaking with President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen declared, „We continue to put Jerusalem, our eternal capital, at the top of the State of Israel’s diplomatic agenda.“
The Presidency of Sierra Leone announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, „As part of efforts to strengthen the warm relationship between the two nations, His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio expressed his readiness to establish an Embassy of Sierra Leone in Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel.“
The Foreign Ministry announced that the embassy, which will replace those of Paraguay and an unnamed nation in the Pacific Islands, will be the sixth to be located in Jerusalem.
The capital of Israel now houses the embassies of the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, and Kosovo.
After Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain in 1961, the government first forged connections with Israel. It severed connections with Israel in 1973 until reestablishing them in 1992.
Despite not having an embassy in Sierra Leone, Israel runs a diplomatic presence in Ghana that serves both nations. Muslims make up around 80% of Sierra Leoneans.
The decision by then-President Donald Trump to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 paved the way for other nations to do the same in the years that followed.
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