People living in Nigeria's Niger Delta region are increasingly feeling the impact of armed violence on their communities and their daily routines. A small household survey conducted by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey in Rivers state in early 2007 revealed that nearly one-third of respondents had experienced a violent crime in the previous six months. Many feared leaving their homes due to the threat of violence, and pointed to armed groups as the main source of their concern. A number of respondents identified assault rifles, shotguns and pistols as the most common small arms in the state.

The report "Small Arms, Armed Violence, and Insecurity in Nigeria: The Niger Delta in Perspective" found that armed groups in the Delta region have demonstrated possession of increasingly sophisticated weapons. The report suggests that funds raised by politicians, ransom payments from abducted foreign oil workers, and the illicit tapping of oil pipelines to siphon crude oil, or "bunkering", have enabled the purchase of new and better equipment.

Armed groups are reported to smuggle in their guns from three principal fronts: the south-west border with Benin, the port city of Warri in Delta state and North-East border between Niger and Cameroon. Another significant source is thought to be the Tudu arms market in Ghana.

Estimates of the number of small arms in Nigeria vary from 1 million to 3 million, but legal ownership is low. The government purchased 40,000 AK-47s assault rifles, 30,000 K2 assault rifles and 10,000 pistols for the police in 2006, claiming that they had insufficient numbers of small arms to tackle the high levels of armed crime. Most Nigerians however, think the police should be better trained, not better armed.

The Small Arms Survey study was conducted with help from members of the Nigerian Action Network on Small Arms (NANSA).