Thief in Addis (Ethiopia)

This man is called Elias Negash. Do NOT trust him. He is a thief.

Please share this message with anyone involved in Tourism in Ethiopia.

Fancy a genuine story not in the newspapers?

Do you like independent travel free of scams?

Then read on...

We met Elias Negash in the morning of Saturday August the 31st by the tourist information office by Merkel Square in Addis Ababa.

We spoke to the tourist information employee and Elias seemed to be known to him (later we found out that he had entered the office with tourists several times in the past). Since he seemed to be able to help us better, we left the office and went to get our bus ticket to Bahir Dar. He came with us to this bus company office next to the tourism office. We ended up not buying the tickets there as he had told us about a more convenient possibility.

He introduced himself as an employee of Goal Ethiopia and said was happy to help us without any charge. His motto was 'Whatever you do for others comes back to you in the future'. 

He spent quite a few hours with us in a nearby clinic were we had to go due to personal needs. He helped us there (this is where we took his picture). He also got for us a mosquito net, which he sold us for 430Birr, which seemed to be a reasonable price to pay for a new, high quality net.

He called his 'brother', who is a taxi driver to bring the net and drive us to a restaurant with good quality wifi, which is difficult to find in Addis.

He also drove us to Axum Hotel, where we could work online. On the way he asked for a local lady who did laundry and we left our clothes there. He spoke to staff members of Axum Hotel who seemed to know him too (possibly been there with tourists in the past).

He promised to collect the clothes, and the minibus tickets and asked for 200Birr to pay the driver, which also seemed to be quite reasonable.

The tickets of this bus costed 270 each, therefore 540 Birr. As he promised, he brought us the clothes and the bus tickets the day after, Sunday September the 1st when we met him again at Axum hotel.

We have kept the tickets, which he falsified, together with 'pre-booked' tickets with an open date to go to Harar. He asked 230 Birr for the pre-booked tickets claiming that they could be valid for any day, just calling the office.

He seemed to know quite a lot of the Goal Ethiopia organisation (later we found out that he had indeed worked there and had been sacked for good reasons) He had probably studied the Goal.ie website and knew that there was no phone number in Ethiopia published to easily confirm his claims.

On the morning of September the 2nd we woke up early and we waited for a minibus which never turned up. We had to take another minibus later.

We did not have time to confirm his authenticity nor the authenticity of the tickets and paid him. Total we paid him 430 + 200 + 540 + 230 equals 1400 birr, from which we expect he made less than 1000 bir net profit (40 euro).

Was it worth it?

We believe that a man with his connections, intelligence, communication skills and knowledge could easily make that money legally.

Why then?

1- Tourists are often seen in Ethiopia as walking banks. This is because many in the past have given excessive tips and charity donations. We encourage tourists to donate money to registered charities such as Goal.Ie, but NOT give money to beggars and give money only when corresponded with a good service.

2- Elias was not worried about the police. We found out why. After three long visits to a police station we realised that the lack of motivation towards work from many policemen is helping crime in Ethiopia. We believe that crime, even if not violent, should be prosecuted to promote tourism, increase jobs and allow freedom.

We are hoping that this message in the social networks helps all tourists. Please share this message with anyone involved in Tourism in Ethiopia, as others can avoid the trap.