For a long time, society was strongly hierarchical and unequal, primarily composed of peasants. The most backward, impoverished segment of the population, they were crushed by the weight of taxes, wars, and famines.

Stephen O'Brien, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has said that more than 20 million people faced the threat of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.