With a bit of funding, Boyette’s Nuba Reports team members hope to bridge that divide. They quickly discovered that the chasm was daunting, especially here.

The work – capturing hair-raising footage alongside rebels in combat – wasn’t for everybody. Boyette’s team of local reporters shrank to three, including Hassen, who doesn’t even talk to his family about his work for fear of word spreading to government spies.

It didn’t take long to realize that part-time commitments and amateur skill sets could carry the project only so far. The remaining reporters now receive stipends and, when possible, training.

In the tight interior of a small hut one recent afternoon, a volunteer American photojournalist huddled around a laptop with Boyette and his team. Images flowed across the screen. The lesson of the day was improving video storytelling with background video, known as B-roll, and multiple camera angles. For homework, the local reporters had watched a James Bond film; here, even movies are rare.

The session was crammed with suggestions. The Nuba reporters listened intently, trying to keep up.

"Before, we’d just go to a place and someone would tell us what happened. Now, we are told to record someone’s personal story. Are we supposed to do both?" reporter Ahmed Khatir asked in Arabic, eyebrows raised.

His team is improving rapidly, Boyette said, but operations are another matter.

"Logistics, that’s our biggest challenge. Trying to get people to where they need to be," Boyette said.

The roads – winding dirt paths through valley passes – are terrible, and they can be impassable for months at a time during rains. There’s no mobile network, so Boyette and his team have to communicate via satellite for phone and email. For electricity, they use solar equipment.

Often, something goes wrong.

"Ah, all the batteries are dead," Boyette exclaimed after one long day, exasperatedly checking the equipment. The interview his team was conducting abruptly ended.

News of bombings or fighting can take days to emerge from the bush. Getting there and back can take several more days.

Already, his team has exposed government forces torching Nuba villages as part of its counterinsurgency operation. The website also regularly reports on the humanitarian condition of the displaced here, including a persistent hunger crisis.

With the warring sides digging in for the long haul, Boyette said Nuba Reports’ work had barely begun.

Policymakers, Sudan observers and journalists already follow the site closely, Boyette said. This year, Nuba Reports will launch an Arabic website, to become more accessible to Sudanese and the wider Middle East, rather than just the West.

"We really believe that Sudanese are going to be the ones creating the change in the country," Boyette said.

By at least one indicator, Boyette’s work is getting noticed. Last year, a Sudanese warplane swooped over his house, dropping six bombs, two of which landed less than a football field away – which is what passes for accuracy in this war.

That did nothing to deter him. Still, he dislikes the notion that this is his project.

"In reality, I’m just running a support role. My team is the one going to the front lines, going to people’s homes," he said.

Hassen said the Nuba can never repay Boyette for his work and vision. For now, Hassen just continues hopping on his motorbike, weathering bombing raids and artillery fire, hoping that more and more people learn about his homeland’s troubles.

Someday, when the time is right, he said, he’ll finally get his university degree, which he postponed to join the news crew.

What will he study?

"Journalism." He grinned. "I really like it."