(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "You can't read, you can't do anything in this kind of situation," student Leke Oshubu told the BBC on Tuesday, July 12.
Thousands of residents have boarded trucks to flee the city after a series of attacks by the radical Boko Haram group.
"We are going to Kano where my late husband who was killed by soldiers last Saturday comes from," Aishatu Musa, a housewife with five children, told Reuters.
More than 150 people have been killed this year in attacks carried out by Boko Haram in Maiduguri.
The group has threatened attacks on bars and police stations in the city, which lies near Nigeria's remote northeastern borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
The attacks have forced the main university in the state to close down.
"After an emergency meeting of the university senate, it was decided that lectures be suspended in view of the prevailing security situation until further notice," a university statement said.
"All students have been directed to vacate hostels."
Last Saturday, 11 members of Boko Haram were killed and two soldiers wounded in clashes between the two sites.
Boko Haram strikes have spread farther afield in recent months, including a bomb in the car park of national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, last month.
The Boko Haram says it wants a wider application of Shari`ah across Africa's most populous nation,
President Goodluck Jonathan, sworn in for his first full term in late May, has voiced support for dialogue with Boko Haram, but the radical group has said it will only negotiate if demands including the resignation of the Borno state government are met.
Crackdown
Residents have also complained of deadly crackdowns by army troops in the state.
"They just came, shouting 'Hands up' and then started shooting," a resident told the BBC on condition of anonymity.
"They think people like us - civilians - are hiding militants."
Residents had told the BBC that soldiers had dragged men out of their homes before setting their properties on fire following an attack by the radical group.
Residents have also been ordered to walk with their hands raised as they approach military checkpoints in the city.
Last week, authorities banned motorbikes in Maiduguri, which have been used by attackers for bombings and shootings.
But the motorbikes are also an important means of transport for local traders, who play a key role in the local economy.
Legislators from Borno state held a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja to condemn the military strategy, calling for an amicable solution to the conflict with Boko Haram.
But the Nigerian army has denied the accusations.
"Soldiers are not animals who will be killing people indiscriminately," said Brigadier General Jack Okechukwu Nwaogbo, the head of the military task force in Maiduguri.
"Anybody shot or killed by soldiers must have attacked them or is armed, which means he is part of the group we are out to tackle."
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