On June 5, 2019, the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held an open hearing on the national security implications of climate change. The government experts testifying pointed to Nigeria as an example of the complex ways in which such trends are emerging globally. As Peter Kiemel, a counselor for the National Intelligence Council, described:
“…these places, like in West Africa in eastern Nigeria, for example, where you have water and drought as an issue intermixed with historic tribal rivalries, historic religious rivalries, and ethnic rivalries, you have water as a contributor to—and an intensifying factor in—those kinds of conflicts. And that provides opportunities for extremist groups, for terrorist organizations to take advantage of those conflicts to try and advance their interests as well.”