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 UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. will make its first formal contact with the Islamic militants that captured most of Somalia with the arrival this week of a security team to meet with the leaders of the little-known group, a senior official said Monday.
The trip is meant to prepare for a similar visit by U.N. humanitarian agencies that want to ramp up aid to the country, said Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. special representative for Somalia.
It also reflects a growing realization within the U.N. that the Islamic militants — known as the Islamic Courts Union — are the closest thing Somalia now has to a government after some 15 years as a failed state when different warlords rose and fell, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject.
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