The deadly internal military fighting that has been going on in Yemen for over five years tragically splintered unified families and affected social relationships between the ordinary citizens living in the country.

As one of the prominent woes caused by the years-long military conflict, many families and friends had changed the way in which they deal with their counterparts who have different political affiliations.

However, football is considered as the world's most popular sport managed to gradually heal the wounds and divisions in the Yemeni society.

In a peaceful way, football matches succeeded in unifying hundreds of Yemenis, particularly young people, with different political affiliations inside one sports stadium.

In the southern port city of Aden, hundreds of people attended to watch a local football match and attempted to leave aside the political rifts as well as the fighting woes for hours.

Last month, deadly street-to-street battles rocked the strategic port city of Aden, leaving around 40 people dead and 260 others injured, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande said in a statement.

Mohsen Jamal, an Aden-based youth activist, found the football match as an appropriate chance to renew his social relations and meet his friends who came from other neighboring southern cities.

"The previous violent events forced my friends' families to leave Aden," said Jamal.

"But today, I'm so happy after meeting my beloved friends again during the football match held in Aden," he said.

He added that "we used to live peacefully within the same neighborhood and go out together but the military conflict separated us."

Many other young people in Aden reported to participating in sports activities in a bid to normalize their life despite the tension in southern Yemen.

A university graduate named Ahmed Zayed urged the Yemeni authorities to financially support the sports activities and encourage youth leadership Aden and neighboring provinces.

"We urge the Yemeni authorities to establish sports stadiums and prevent young people from joining the armed groups that destroyed our country," said Zayed.

He added that "pushing young people to join sports activities will be a good thing to prevent the military conflict from expansion."

Yemen has been plagued in a civil war between the government forces and Houthis since late 2014, which has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, in the impoverished Arab country.

The long-running conflict has caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Currently, some 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population, need humanitarian aid and protection, with some 20 million lacking food security, according to the United Nations.