How to add a static library to Yocto SDK package - sdk

Question

I have a .a and .h file that should be added into the SDK installer. The header file is correctly put in the {includedir} aka /usr/include
However, the static lib file which is set to be added in {libdir} is not copied to usr/lib/ for some reason. I do not get any error or warning messages when building the SDK package.
The recipe used:
#
# This file was derived from the 'Hello World!' example recipe in the
# Yocto Project Development Manual.
#
SUMMARY = "HostSw and libraries for abc"
SECTION = "abc-drv"
LICENSE = "CLOSED"
ABC_ROOT = "${HOME}/abc/def"
ABC_HOSTSW_DIR = "${ABC_ROOT}/hostSw"
ABC_UTILS_DIR = "${ABC_ROOT}/cliUtilities"
inherit externalsrc
EXTERNALSRC = "${ABC_ROOT}"
do_compile() {
make clean -C ${ABC_HOSTSW_DIR}
make -C ${ABC_HOSTSW_DIR}
make clean -C ${ABC_UTILS_DIR}
make -C ${ABC_UTILS_DIR}
}
##################################################################################################
APPLI_PATH := "${ABC_ROOT}/hostSw"
APPLI_BIN_PATH := "${APPLI_PATH}/bin/"
APPLI_TARGET_PATH := "${base_prefix}/home/root/"
APPLI_NAME := "example-app"
UTILS_BIN_PATH := "${ABC_UTILS_DIR}/bin"
UTILS_TARGET_PATH := "${APPLI_TARGET_PATH}"
do_install() {
install -d ${D}${APPLI_TARGET_PATH}
install -m 0550 ${APPLI_BIN_PATH}/${APPLI_NAME} ${D}${APPLI_TARGET_PATH}
install -d ${D}${libdir}
install -m 0644 ${APPLI_BIN_PATH}/abc.a ${D}/${libdir}
install -d ${D}${includedir}
install -m 0644 ${APPLI_PATH}/inc/abc.h ${D}/${includedir}
}
FILES_${PN} = "\
${APPLI_TARGET_PATH} \
"
Please don't mind the externalsrc or any other non-problem related peculiarities, the recipe is working fine the way I need it to except for the static lib not being inserted in the SDK.
Why is the .a file not treated the same way as the header file and how would the recipe needed to be changed so the static lib is included in the SDK package?
When listing the package I get:
oe-pkgdata-util list-pkg-files -p def-abc-xyz
def-abc-xyz-dbg:
def-abc-xyz-staticdev:
/usr/lib/libabc.a
def-abc-xyz-dev:
/usr/include/abc.h
def-abc-xyz:
[snip]