BRUSSELS ― A German lawmaker inadvertently invited to the European Parliament two members of a Sudanese paramilitary group accused of being responsible for burying people alive, mass rape and murdering thousands of civilians.

Lukas Sieper, an independent MEP who often votes along center-left and liberal lines, arranged an event to discuss “lasting peace” in Sudan via a U.K. based think tank. He didn’t realize the two men in question were linked to the country’s notorious Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an entity sanctioned by the EU for its part in a two-year civil war that’s led to famine and has been accused of genocide by international organizations.

Their meeting in Brussels, scheduled for Wednesday, was canceled only the previous day, when two other lawmakers and the office of Parliament President Roberta Metsola brought to Sieper’s attention the backgrounds of the pair.

“As an MEP, as a young lawmaker, this is a situation to learn from,” Sieper told POLITICO. “It shows me that you always have to double check the information, even if you work with people that you build trust with on prior events.”

The RSF is involved in a bitter power struggle with the Sudanese military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler. The conflict has led to the deaths of more than 150,000 people, with a further 12 million forced to flee their homes. The United Nations has described it as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Human Rights Watch, a campaign group, said last year that RSF attacks could be classed as ethnic cleansing and possible genocide.

The episode renews questions about how people gain access to members of the European Parliament. While on this occasion the event was stopped at the last minute ― and there is no suggestion their invitation was anything but a genuine mistake on Sieper’s part ― the past few years has seen a string of lobbying scandals in the assembly, including allegations of undue influence by representatives from the governments of Qatar and Morocco, and the Chinese tech firm Huawei.

The latest case highlights “how deliberate the actions of harmful groups are to infiltrate our Parliament,” Sieper said. “I’m quite certain that I was chosen by the RSF people deliberately because I am young, I’m unexperienced, I’m a non-attached member, so people know that I don’t have a big group behind me.”

Territorial integrity

Gamaal El Attar, executive director of the International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD), a Belgium-based human rights group, said the EU’s sanctions on the Sudanese group, introduced in 2023, had made them more active in Brussels. “This has encouraged the militias to find a way back to the European Parliament to counter-lobby our work,” he said.

The IFRD alerted other MEPs when the two men’s identities became known. Those two MEPs “contacted Sieper in a very nice way because it’s a little bit delicate to tell someone that you invited two militia guys,” El Attar said.

The Sudanese government also demanded the event ― “Ending the Conflict in Sudan and Opportunities for Achieving Lasting Peace” ― be canceled in a letter to Metsola, seen by POLITICO. It cited the RSF’s involvement in “genocidal killings” of tribes, “burying people alive,” “rape and gender-based violence,” and the “obstruction of humanitarian aid.”

Providing a platform to the group “risks undermining the EU’s consistent messages in support of Sudan’s unity, sovereignty and its territorial integrity,” the Sudanese embassy to the EU stated in the letter.

About 50 members of the Sudanese diaspora living in Belgium, the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany traveled to Brussels to protest the event. Holding signs reading “RSF and UAE killed my family” and “no to the legitimizing of the militia,” they stood in Place Jean Rey, a few meters away from the Parliament.

Sieper apologized and said he attended the protest to “explain” himself and “show the world, but especially the people of Sudan and the people who have been hurt by RSF action, that this is not something that we want to give a platform to.” He was welcomed by applause and chants.

“Thank all of you who participate in this manifestation today,” he told a cheering crowd. “You are proving that civil society works. You are proven that democratically elected politicians like me can be held accountable for their actions.”

A spokesperson from the Parliament declined to comment.