Africa has received the new United States administration with a mixture of hope and anxiety especially the myriad troublespots all over the continent.

In East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes such areas as Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur and the indictment facing Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, northern Uganda and the tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea over the disputed border of Badme all cry out for intervention.

Closer to Obama’s heart is Kenya, his father’s birthplace and a key US ally and strategic partner in the war against terror.

The country is not out of the woods yet after last year’s post-election violence. Indeed, the power-sharing deal that was crafted under pressure from US and other Western powers remains shaky.

Obama and the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, have so far shown they prefer diplomacy to the “shoot from the hip” approach of the George W. Bush administration.

During his inauguration, President Obama gave a glimpse of his take poor governance in Africa.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame the society’s ills on the West know that your people will judge you on what you can build.

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” he said.

Sudan, Somalia, DRC and Zimbabwe suffer from humanitarian and security crises, and political strife.

In Somalia, the new administration has to adopt a different approach from the past race-based interventions that tended to view Somalis as sub-humans who could only be handled with an iron hand.

Now, Obama has to make a much more decisive intervention in Somalia, given the rise of the al-Shabaab extremists.

Intelligence reports that al-Shabaab militants had planned to disrupt the inauguration celebrations in Washington, should awaken the new administration into some concrete action.

In 1991, the US was literally kicked out of Somalia by ragtag militias only to return in 2006 when it teamed up with Ethiopia militarily to get rid of the Union of Islamic Courts and terrorist elements within it.

But this partnership only fuelled more rebellion against what was widely perceived as an Ethiopian occupation, forcing the Ethiopians to withdraw.

In Darfur, past US administration favoured a UN military intervention. But to President al-Bashir, that served ulterior Western interests and amounts to the recolonisation of the Sudan.

During the campaigns, Obama spoke of tougher sanctions against Sudan’s rulers and of a possible no-fly zone above Darfur. Now he has to translate this tough talk into action.

But the new administration must move with care lest its interventions be misinterpreted as an extension of the International Criminal Court threat to indict al-Bashir over war crimes in Darfur.

Obama’s top foreign policy adviser during the campaigns, Susan Rice — a passionate advocate for the protection of the people of Darfur — believes that Darfur could turn into another Rwanda, where the international community was unwilling to intervene until it developed into genocide.

But of direct affront to the US leadership in the world is Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe defies the West and is not willing to respect the power-sharing deal signed in September last year.

The favoured US policy here has been sanctions against the top leadership of Zanu-PF — an approach that has so far not worked.

As of now, it seems the new administration has not put much thought on Zimbabwe and Mugabe.

In her statement to the Senate at her confirmation hearing, Mrs Clinton merely called upon Southern Africa Development Community and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to “Convince the new president that there is a place for Mugabe in the new government.” During his campaigns Obama declared the Mugabe government, illegal.

Over to the DRC, matters have been complicated with the entry of the Lord’s Resistance Army that is being pursued in a joint Uganda-Sudan military operation.

This comes hot on the heels of a split in the Gen Laurent Nkunda-led rebellion.

The Obama administration has to focus on Africa’s troublespots and invest in peacemaking, especially by building up the capabilities of the African Union to intervene in conflicts and early warning systems.