Described from ‘Buala, Cameroon’, which corresponds to modern-day Bouala in Central African Republic. It’s known distribution includes parts of northern Cameroon, western Central African Republic, southeastern Chad and possibly eastern Nigeria in the upper Benue and Mayo Kébbi river systems.

The specific name was mis-used to refer to various populations of the congener A. elberti prior to 1990, and we’ve been unable to confirm if the specimen pictured here is correctly identified or not. It is listed as ‘endangered’ by the IUCN.