KANO, Nigeria, Feb 8, 2012 (IPS) - "I can no longer stay here in Kano as it rains bombs. The gun battles rattle us... Kano is no longer safe," said pregnant Funke Nweke of her decision to flee Nigeria's northern state with her five-year-old daughter.

Nweke grimaced as she held her daughter, Nnenna, while they waited at Kano's most popular motor park to board a bus headed to Nigeria's south. She and her daughter are fleeing the state, as they fear being attacked by the Islamist extremists Boko Haram.

Kano witnessed the worst series of suicide bombings, bombs blasts and gun battles on Jan. 20. According to the president of the Civil Rights Congress, a human rights organisation based in the northern city of Kaduna, 256 people were killed in the fighting. However, the local police authority puts this figure at 184 dead.