Its natural habitat is arid and semiarid desert with rocky substrates and sparse shrubs.

It is found in the northern Horn of Africa; it was formerly thought to be exclusively endemic to Somalia, but a 2020 sighting also indicates they are found in Djibouti and potentially Ethiopia.

It was formerly classified in the genus Elephantulus, but a 2020 study found it to be the sister taxon of the clade containing the genera Petrodromus and Petrosaltator; and the genus Galegeeska was coined for it.

[3] The Somali sengi was among the 25 "most wanted lost" species that were the focus of Global Wildlife Conservation's “Search for Lost Species” initiative.

[4] On 18 August 2020, 50 years after it was last seen and recorded, it was announced that a population had been found in Djibouti, the first documented since 1968.