The Gulf of Guinea coast and the western Sahel: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, spanning everything from the Sahara's southern fringe to the tropical coast. The Sahara divide keeps Northern Africa's Mediterranean-facing states, Algeria among them, in a separate group even though Mali and Niger border them directly.