Myanmar junta extends emergency rule amid escalating conflict

31/7/2024 17:50

        Myanmar's embattled military government extended a state of emergency on Wednesday for another six months, state media said, as the junta struggles to maintain its grip on power with fighting flaring on multiple fronts and the economy in crisis.
        
        Army-run Myawaddy media said the military-controlled National Defence and Security Council extended emergency rule to give the junta more time to put together population data for voter lists. The junta has said it will hold an election next year.
        
        The military put the country under emergency rule for a year when it took power in a February 2021 coup, deposing the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering nationwide street protests that it violently crushed.
        
        The junta has since extended that every six months, as the protest movement morphed into an armed rebellion that has widened and is now posing an existential threat to the generals.