U.S. embassy official bags life imprisonment for sexual abuse of minors in Africa
A former U.S. employee, Fode Sitafa Mara, has been sentenced to life in prison for sexual abuse of two girls aged 13 and 15, after lying to help their sick mother.
Mr Mara, 41, who worked at the U.S. embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, between 2022 and 2023, was first accused of the crime last October, the New York Post reported.
He was sentenced on Thursday by a Maryland federal judge, Lydia Kay Griggsby, after he was found guilty of charges including an aggravated sexual abuse of minors, attempted coercion and enticement of minors and attempted obstruction of justice.
Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice, said, “The defendant, while representing the U.S. government abroad, violently sexually abused two acutely vulnerable child victims.
”His crimes were reprehensible. While no sentence could undo the harm he caused, today’s outcome demonstrates that those who abuse children, domestically or abroad, will face significant consequences in the American justice system.”
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