Léon Chefneux (15 January 1853 at Piatra Neamț, Romania – 31 May 1927 at Grasse, France) was a French explorer, businessman, and arms dealer.
[2] In 1885, he was in charge of delivering weapons to Négus Menelik and, together with Henry Audon, traversed Dankali and Choa, where they met Paul Soleillet.
[3] Upon learning of the massacre of the explorer Léon Barral and his wife on 24 February 1886, he went to the sources of Amoïssa and found the unrecognisable bodies, which had been devoured by hyenas and birds of prey.
[4] He was the manager of the Lake Assal Society (1896–1897), having received the concession in 1887,[5] and in 1896 he founded, with Alfred Ilg, the Imperial Company of Ethiopian Railways.
As Ethiopia's consul general, Léon Chefneux was involved in establishing the railway between Djibouti and Addis Ababa.