The Nigerian fishing community being eaten up by the Atlantic

Nigerian Fishing Community Being Eaten Up By the Atlantic

Ayetoro -- The beach shrinks every year in Ayetoro, in southern Nigeria, and what is left is peppered with the remains of homes swallowed by the ocean, some years ago, some just months prior.

The Nigerian fishing community being eaten up by the Atlantic

"We are walking on people's houses," said 35-year-old Thompson Akingboye, moving along a narrow strip of sand only accessible by boat. Nicknamed "The Happy Place," Ayetoro -- home to around 10,000 people -- was founded in 1947 by a group of communist-inspired Christians seeking to create a society based on the communal sharing of assets. But its days seem numbered, as the community becomes one of Nigeria's most visible victims of coastal erosion…

Atlantic Ocean Swallows Up Nigeria’s “Happy Place”

Every year, the ocean claims more of Ayetoro in Ondo State. The beach shrinks. Homes fall. Families move inland, only to watch the water follow. “We are walking on people’s houses,” said Thompson Akingboye, 35, a fisherman and palace aide, as he picked his way along a narrow strip of sand accessible only by boat. Nicknamed “The Happy Place”, Ayetoro — home to around 10,000 people — was founded in 1947 by a group of communist-inspired Christians …