Cairo: President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has extended a state of emergency in Egypt for another three months.

The decree says the armed forces and police should take all necessary measures ‘to confront the threats and funding of terrorism and maintain security throughout the country.’ It was published Saturday in the official gazette.

The state of emergency has been in place since April 2017 after bombings struck two Coptic Christian churches on Palm Sunday, later claimed by the extremist Islamic State group.

In February, Egypt began a wide-scale anti-militant operation mainly in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the epicentre of a years-long Islamic insurgency. It involves land, sea and air forces and covers parts of Egypt’s Nile Delta and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya.