CAIRO, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian parliament approved on Tuesday a three-month extension of a state of emergency due to the security challenges facing the country, official MENA news agency reported.
The parliament speaker said during a general session on Tuesday that he had been informed by the prime minister of the decision of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to extend the nationwide state of emergency for another three months.
The extension starts from Monday evening, July 10.
Sisi imposed the first three-month nationwide state of emergency in April following a twin bombings at two churches in northern provinces of Gharbiya and Alexandria killed at least 47 and wounded over 120.
A similar suicide bombing at a Cairo church in December 2016 killed at least 28 worshippers.
Egypt has been suffering a rising wave of terrorist activities following the military removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
Terror activities had been centered in restive North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip before they prevailed nationwide, killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.
A constantly renewed three-month state of emergency and a curfew have been imposed on some parts of North Sinai since October 2014, following a terror attack on a military checkpoint in the province that killed at least 33 soldiers.
They have recently started to target the Coptic minority and their churches across the country via bombings that killed dozens of them.
Most of the terrorist operations were claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.
