Egypt's parliament – the House of Representatives – voted on Thursday in favour of a presidential decree (217/2019) extending the country’s state of emergency for three more months.

The extension will begin on 1pm, 25 July 2019.

On 5 May 2019, parliament voted in favour of extending the state of emergency, which has been extended every three months for the past two years, beginning on 23 April and ending on 24 July.

The state of emergency was first imposed in April 2017 after two church bombings which killed 47 people. It has been continually extended since.

Article 2 of the decree allows security forces to “take [measures] necessary to confront the dangers and funding of terrorism and safeguard security in all parts of the country.”

Egypt launched a large-scale counter-terrorism campaign involving the police and the military last year to crush terrorists based mainly in the border North Sinai governorate.

Parliament is scheduled to adjourn for summer recess on Thursday. The next session, scheduled before the first Thursday of October, will be the last one (2019/20).

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/337813.aspx