[2][3][5] Previously feared to be extinct,[5] a few populations were found in surveys between 2005 and 2007, after the species had gone unrecorded for more than 20 years.

[6] The specific name derooi honours Antoon De Roo, a Belgian ornithologist who was part of the expedition that discovered the species.

[1][2][4][5] Records of Conraua alleni from eastern Ghana and Togo refer to this species.

[4][5] Conraua derooi lives in flowing water in forest habitats;[1] they are permanently aquatic.

[1] At the time of the latest assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2004, only one surviving population was believed to exist.