This African species ranges from southern Western Sahara, Sahelian Mauritania and Senegal, east to Ethiopia and Somalia, and south to Cameroon and Tanzania, with an isolated population in the Tassili Mountains of southern Algeria and southwestern Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Records of Bufo mauritanicus from Niger and Mali refer to this species. There do not appear to be records from Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria and Central African Republic, although it presumably occurs in these countries. Possible records from Angola and southern Democratic Republic of Congo require confirmation. It occurs from near sea level up to 1,800m asl.