HARARE (AFP) — Senior UN official Haile Menkerios met with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Tuesday ahead of a run-off presidential poll, said a source close to the United Nations.
"He (Menkerios) met with the president just before lunch," the source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
Menkerios, an assistant secretary general for political affairs responsible for Africa, arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday to evaluate the political situation in the country and discuss the upcoming election.
Following the meeting with Mugabe, of which the content and duration were not immediately known, the UN delegation was holding internal meetings, the source saod.
Menkerios' visit, which will last until Friday, follows talks between UN chief Ban Ki-moon and embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on the sidelines of a food summit in Rome early last week.
It comes amid an escalating humanitarian, economic and political crisis in the country since Mugabe's ruling party lost control of parliament in general election on March 29 and the veteran leader came second in the first round of the presidential poll.
Mugabe has stepped up rhetoric ahead of the run-off on June 27, threatening to arrest opposition leaders over mounting violence, and warning he is ready to fight to prevent the opposition from coming to power.
The opposition has said that the violence has so far claimed the lives of more than 60 of their supporters since the first round of the presidential election in March.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who faces Mugabe in the run-off, has claimed Zimbabwe is now run by what is essentially a "military junta" that has unleashed a campaign of violence and intimidation throughout the country.
Police have detained Tsvangirai five times over the last couple weeks and two MDC campaign buses have been seized, though one has since been returned.
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