South Sudan’s largest opposition movement has asked its supporters to mobilise to defend their country days after long-time opposition leader Riek Machar was indicted and suspended from his position as first vice president.

Machar faces a slew of charges including murder, terrorism and crimes against humanity.

In a Monday statement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition party (SPLM/A-IO), asked supporters to “report for national service” and to use “all means available to regain their country and sovereignty,” acting chairman Nathaniel Oyet wrote.

While the statement reads like a general call to mobilise for war, Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel, a spokesman for SPLM/A-IO, said he had not received any official communication from Oyet and that forces on the ground had not been given orders to go on the offensive.

“It may just be a political statement,” he said.

Political analysts say it is not clear whether the statement will translate into increased violence by opposition forces.

The statement says the SPLM/IO will not participate in the trial and will not file any legal defence for members who are “illegally arrested and detained, in contravention of the peace agreement.”

Machar had been on house arrest since March after a local militia that the government says he has ties to over-run a military garrison in the north of the country. Machar was arrested along with other senior members of his party, who have also been indicted. It is not clear when his trial will start.

A power struggle between President Salva Kiir and Machar erupted into civil war in 2013, just two years after the country achieved independence, after a split in the ruling SPLM party. A peace agreement was then signed in 2018.

A spokesman for Machar, Puok Both Baluang, justified the call to arms, which he said would defend the peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war. Both Baluang previously called the indictment a “political witch hunt” to “dismantle the peace agreement.”

“We believe the primary beneficiaries of the peace agreement are the people of South Sudan, who are eager to see it through,” he said on Monday.

Riek Machar’s indictment has significantly raised political tensions and fuelled fears of an eruption of political violence. In recent months, pro-government troops have been fighting opposition forces loyal to Machar, as well as other armed groups.

The conflict was marred by horrific ethnic violence. Kiir is an ethnic Dinka, the country’s largest group, while Machar is an ethnic Nuer, its second largest. Observers fear that the political crisis could erupt into renewed fighting.

• An AP report