Bristly ground squirrels Xerini are a small rodent tribe of six extant species. Despite a dense fossil record the group was never diverse. Our phylogenetic reconstruction, based on the analysis of cytochrome b gene and including all known species of Xerini, confirms a deep divergence between the African taxa and the Asiatic Spermophilopsis. Genetic divergences among the African Xerini were of a comparable magnitude to those among genera of Holarctic ground squirrels in the subtribe Spermophilina. Evident disparity in criteria applied in delimitation of genera in Sciuridae induced us to recognize two genera formerly incorporated into Xerus. The resurrected genera (Euxerus and Geosciurus) are clearly distinct between each other and from Xerus in nucleotide sequences and in external, cranial and dental morphology. They occupy discrete ranges and show specific environmental adaptations. Atlantoxerus is more likely a sister to the remaining African genera than being nested inside them. We readdress nomenclatural issues associated with Xerini, list and reference all names above the species groups, and detail in words and figures those characters which differentiate the taxa. We propose Tenotis Rafinesque, 1817 (type species is Tenotis griseus Rafinesque, 1817), which is occasionally synonymized with Euxerus, as a not identifiable name (nomen dubium).  Keywords: Atlantoxeru, cytochrome b, Euxerus, Geosciurus, Spermophilopsis.