Myanmar’s military has extended its state of emergency for another six months as it struggles to maintain its increasingly fragile grip on power, with fighting raging on multiple fronts across the country, according to Xinxua.

The military-controlled National Defence and Security Council renewed the emergency rule in a meeting in the capital Naypyidaw on Friday, a day before the four-year anniversary of a coup that plunged the country into chaos after a decade of tentative democracy.

“All members of National Defence and Security Council including the commander in chief as well as acting president decided in unison for the extension of the state of emergency for another six months according to the section 425 of the 2008 constitution,” the statement said.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since February 1, 2021, when the military seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government and arrested its hugely popular leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.