The inter-annual and long-term variability of July--September regional rainfall over the central and western Sahel (16¿W--20¿E; 11.25¿--18.75¿N) is evaluated using 21 runs from four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) integrated from 1948. The skill is stronger at decadal time scales: each AGCM simulates quite successfully the rainfall decrease from the wet 1950--60s toward the dry 1970--90s although its amplitude is lower than observed. At inter-annual time scales, the skill is smaller and decreases over time between the 1950--70s and the recent dry period; all AGCMs have a close to zero skill around the 1980s. This is not linked to a reduced AGCM sensivity to global SST but to their failure to reproduce the observed SST-rainfall teleconnection changes, in particular the weakening (strengthening) linear relationship with the equatorial and southern Atlantic (equatorial Pacific).