The Egyptian parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of a new three-month extension to the country’s nationwide state of emergency.

More than two thirds of MPs voted in favour of the extension.

The state of emergency was last extended on 4 November.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told MPs during that renewal that the extension of the state of emergency was to counter "efforts by dark forces to target the stability of the country and seek to exploit the current chaos and turmoil in neighbouring Arab countries."

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

The decree renewing the state of emergency mandates that the armed forces and the police shall “take [measures] necessary to confront the dangers and funding of terrorism and safeguard security in all parts of the country, protect public and private property and save the lives of citizens.”

The decree will be published in the official gazette.

Egypt launched a large-scale counter-terrorism campaign involving the police and the military in 2018 to crush militants based mainly in the border North Sinai region.