A Maryland man who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Burkina Faso has been handed a life sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage girls while stationed in the African nation, federal prosecutors announced.
Fode Sitafa Mara, 41, was found guilty last year by a federal jury on four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, along with one count each of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and attempted obstruction of justice.
Mara was sentenced Thursday. His attorney, Robert C. Bonsib, said Mara has maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings and intends to appeal the verdict.
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The case centered on Mara’s time at the U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Evidence presented at trial revealed that Mara forcibly raped two teenage girls in 2022 and 2023 at his embassy-leased residence.
According to prosecutors, the girls, ages 13 and 15, had previously been supported by the prior occupant of Mara’s home, who had provided them and their family with “nourishment and safety.” The U.S. attorney’s office noted that the girls lived nearby in a home without running water and faced extreme poverty.
“He used the girls’ mother’s life-threatening illness as an opportunity to demand sex, telling them he could not help them without receiving something in return,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Prosecutors also said Mara supplied the girls with phones so he could call them while his wife was away at work.
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The U.S. took the case because Mara’s residence was reserved for diplomatic personnel. It was prosecuted under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse, the AP reported.
