The U.N. warned Tuesday that post-election violence in Zimbabwe was rising to near crisis levels ahead of a planned presidential run-off, with opposition supporters enduring the brunt of attacks, AFP reports. The statement followed opposition leader’s Morgan Tsvangirai move to return home to contest the election with veteran President Robert Mugabe.

Agustino Zacarias, the UN’s resident representative in Zimbabwe, told reporters that violence appeared to be directed against followers of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). “There is an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly but not exclusively on rural supporters of the MDC,” Zacarias said, quoted by the same source.

“The United Nations country team urges all political leaders across the political divide to unequivocally renounce politically-motivated violence,” he added.

It appears that the U.S. called for Mugabe’s government to guarantee the safety of Tsvangirai when he arrives back in Harare. However, the government said the MDC leader had no reason to fear for his safety.

Meanwhile, it seems that computer hackers attacked the website of Zimbabwe’s state-owned Herald newspaper, BBC News reports. The site has been shut down since Saturday and the visitors are being redirected to the website of the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper. “We are still waiting for our service providers to give us feedback,” the company’s IT Manager, Thomson Ndovihe said “but we should be up and running by tomorrow”.

The Herald in known as the official mouthpiece of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.

According to Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission, the second round may be delayed due to logistical problems. The first round was largely peaceful, but the results were not announced until 2 May.

The 84-year-old President Mugabe ruled uninterrupted since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Currently, the former British colony is dealing with the world’s highest rate of inflation and an unemployment level that reached the 80 percent mark. Mugabe accused the E.U. for his country’s economic collapse.