During the South Sudanese Civil War, Tanginye allied with the SPLA-IO and later Lam Akol's militia, a Juba linked rebel group called the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and became its chief of staff.

Tanginye disliked the Addis Ababa Agreement that ended the civil war in 1972, thus he joined the predominantly Nuer Anyanya II rebel group.

[8] After the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2005, Tanginye's forces became part of the Joint Integrated Units.

[9][10] In September 2010, Tanginye was offered amnesty by Salva Kiir, and he visited Juba and Bentiu and met with Nuer members of the SPLM.

Members of the SAF in Malakal Joint Integrated Unit who remained loyal to Tanginye became concerned about their uncertain future, with some opposing the idea of Tanginye joining the SPLA, and in early February 2011 clashes broke out among the SAF units in Malakal, which soon spread to other towns in the Upper Nile State including Paloich.

[2] In mid-February 2011, Pagan Amum reported that Tanginye had returned to the South in January with 300 men driving trucks with mounted machine guns supplied by Khartoum.

[14] Tanginye's fighters were stationed in New Fangak and primarily fought Johnson Olony's Agwelek Forces until they ended their alliance with the SPLA on 14 May 2015.

[15] On 23 June 2015, Tanginye and fellow SPLA-IO general Thomas Mabor Dhol took Malakal from the SPLA's 1st Division in an opportunistic attack with a force composed mainly of troops from Ulang and Fangak counties along with some of Olony's men.

[16] In June 2015, Tanginye signed a letter expressing frustration with Riek Machar,[17] and in August 2015 he left the SPLA-IO and joined Gabriel Changson Chang's Federal Democratic Party/South Sudan Armed Forces.

[19] Tanginye was supposed to go to Fangak to raise troops for the NDM, but in January 2017 he visited a NDM-allied group, the Tiger Faction New Forces, in the Hamra area in the northern Upper Nile.