Gabriel Tanginye

During the First Sudanese Civil War, Tanginye joined the Anyanya separatist movement as a child soldier. Tanginye disliked the Addis Ababa Agreement that ended the civil war in 1972, thus he joined the predominantly Nuer Anyanya II rebel group. In 1984, during the Second Sudanese Civil War, he and other Anyanya II leaders allied with the Sudanese government in order to fight the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), predominantly made up of those from the Dinka ethnic group. While large numbers of the Anyanya II defected to the SPLA around 1988, Tanginye and his forces stayed allied to the government. Tanginye and his forces joined the SPLA-Nasir faction after it split from the SPLA in 1991. Tanginye became a part of the South Sudan Defence Forces as part of the Khartoum Peace Agreement of 1997. After the defection of Lam Akol in October 2003, the Sudanese government feared losing the Upper Nile area. They provided Tanginye's forces with boats, trucks, guns, and ammunition, which Tanginye used in a campaign in the modern Western Nile State in 2004 designed to rid the area of SPLA support. The campaign killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands of civilians through its use of burning and looting villages. Tanginye was made a major general of the Sudanese Armed Forces in 2004. Unlike many of the pro-Sudan militiamen who were integrated into the SPLA, Tanginye did not sign the Juba Declaration of 8 January 2006. However, Brig. John Both did integrate into the SPLA and took about 70 percent of Tanginye's force with him, leaving the remaining forces estimated at less than 500. == 2005-2011 ==

After the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2005, Tanginye's forces became part of the Joint Integrated Units. He mostly stayed in Khartoum, only occasionally visiting the South. In September 2010, Tanginye was offered amnesty by Salva Kiir, and he visited Juba and Bentiu and met with Nuer members of the SPLM. He reportedly agreed to join the SPLA, but remained quiet the following months. 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. These clashes resulted in about 50 dead. == Independent South Sudan ==

Tanginye was still detained when South Sudan gained its independence on 9 July 2011. However, on 7 October 2013, president Salva Kiir pardoned Tanginye and other former militia commanders. On 29 November 2013, Tanginye was appointed a major general in the SPLA. After the start of the South Sudanese Civil War, Tanginye joined the SPLA-IO. Tanginye's Nuer fighters attacked Shilluk settlements in Panykang County during December 2013 and January 2014. 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. Since then, Olony's forces acted in concert with Tanginye. 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. In June 2015, Tanginye signed a letter expressing frustration with Riek Machar, and in August 2015 he left the SPLA-IO and joined Gabriel Changson Chang's Federal Democratic Party/South Sudan Armed Forces. Lam Akol then brought Tanginye into his primarily Shilluk National Democratic Movement as its chief of staff, 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. In course of this visit, the Tigers were attacked by SPLM-IO-affiliated fighters belonging to the militia of John Uliny, and Tanginye was killed alongside most of the Tigers. ==See also==