The key figure in President Pierre Nkurunziza's new 20-member cabinet is Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, who has returned to the post of minister for public security, a position which he held from 2007 to 2011 before being becoming chief of cabinet in 2014.

Bunyoni, who was once tipped as a possible successor to Nkurunziza, was the first director of Burundi's new civilian police force from 2005 - when the civil war ended - to 2007. Until recently, Bunyoni and Lieutenant General Adolphe Nshimirimana were held to be the two most influential people in Nkurunziza's regime. Nshimirimana was killed when unknown assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at his car in the capital Bujumbura on August 2.

Burundi has been in chaos since late April when Nkurunziza announced he would seek a third term, which opponents said violated a peace deal that ended the civil war.

There were months of street protests during which more than 100 people were killed and tens of thousands fled the country, as security forces cracked down on dissent.

Nkurunziza was sworn in for a third term on August 20 after winning presidential elections which observers said lacked credibility.

In the new cabinet, former minister of justice Pascal Barandagiye takes over the ministry of the interior. Previous ministers for foreign affairs, East African community, finance, energy and mines, and defense all retain their posts.

One Western diplomat in Bujumbura, who asked not to be named, said the return of Bunyoni to the ministry for public security was "not reassuring" and signified - along with other appointments - that "the hard-liners and use of force" had prevailed.

Opposition divided

Five of the 20 ministers were from the opposition Amizero y'Abarundi coalition, whose leader is former rebel leader and opposition leader Agathon Rwasa.

Rwasa angered other members of the opposition when he and his supporters took up seats in the assembly after parliamentary elections. He was made deputy speaker of parliament.

Charles Nditije, leader of a group that had been a junior partner in Rwasa's coalition, condemned the new cabinet.

"We ask the Burundian people to resist, to say no to these illegal and anti-constitutional institutions," he told Reuters.

The portfolios allocated to Amizero y'Abarundi were good governance, public functions, communal development, transport and public works, youth and sport.

Phil Clark, lecturer in international politics at SOAS, University of London, told DW's AfricaLink show that the noise coming out of Bujumbura in the last couple of days is that this is likely to be an interim government or at least an interim cabinet.

"The purpose of this particular cabinet is just to stabilize the government to give Nkurunziza breathing space, to try and get the economy up and running, to try and balance the situation but ultimately he wants to bring in many more of his hard-line allies," he said.