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Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Attacks by Islamic militants in Nigeria that killed at least 256 people in the northern city of Kano are challenging President Goodluck Jonathan’s government a week after a nationwide strike paralyzed the economy.

The militant Muslim group Boko Haram, which is fighting for rule by Islamic law in the north, said it was responsible for blasts at eight government buildings in Kano on Jan. 20. The death toll was confirmed today by Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress, whose members helped carry the dead and wounded to hospitals.

Authorities in Africa’s top oil producer blame Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is a sin,” for a series of attacks over the past year, including the Aug. 26 suicide- bombing of the United Nations building in the capital, Abuja, that killed 24 people. Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in parts of four northern states and said the militants pose a worse threat to the country than the 1967-1970 Biafra civil war.

“They seem to be able to do whatever they want to do, wherever they want to do it, which means the government is not safe,” Jubrin Ibrahim, director of the Abuja-based Center for Democracy and Development, said by phone. The government’s “own survival is at risk as this thing spreads.”