UN's Ban Ki-moon arrives in Somalia, without flak jacket

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, center, walks inside the heavily-protected airport complex during a visit to Mogadishu, Somalia Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. Ban's fashion choices are not typically newsworthy but are significant in Mogadishu. On his trip in 2011, he wore a U.N.-branded bullet-proof vest, and the fact that his security advisers did not insist on war-time protection on this trip, at least inside the well-protected airport complex, is seen as another indication of Mogadishu's improving security. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh) (The Associated Press)

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon turns as he receives a salute from an honor guard inside the heavily-protected airport complex during a visit to Mogadishu, Somalia Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. Ban's fashion choices are not typically newsworthy but are significant in Mogadishu. On his trip in 2011, he wore a U.N.-branded bullet-proof vest, and the fact that his security advisers did not insist on war-time protection on this trip, at least inside the well-protected airport complex, is seen as another indication of Mogadishu's improving security. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh) (The Associated Press)

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has landed in Somalia for his second visit to what was considered until recently a war-torn capital.

Ban walked around Mogadishu's airport complex in a dark suit and without the bullet-proof vest he wore during his trip to Somalia's capital in 2011.

Security has been improving in Mogadishu and throughout southern Somalia, though the militant group al-Shabab continues to carry out deadly suicide and gunfire attacks.

Ban may bring up the issue of charcoal with Somali and African Union military leaders. The U.N. Security Council last week authorized the inspections of boats suspected of carrying illegal shipments of charcoal from Somalia.

Somalia's charcoal market in 2013 and 2014 was worth $250 million, about 30 percent of which flows to al-Shabab fighters.