In June 2019 Africanews reported that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in the Tigray Region and that one of his main engagements was reviewing efforts to save a historic obelisk in Axum together with his regional hosts.
Heritage conservation around Axum’s stelae sits next to politics in Tigray, so a prime-ministerial visit framed as cultural preservation also read as an attempt to show national care for a Tigrayan sacred city before later national rupture.
Kept as heritage archive, the Africanews note dates Abiy’s mid-2019 Axum obelisk preservation visit in Tigray.
Sources: Africanews