The death of a Kenyan doctor in police custody in South Sudan has raised widespread concern in a country with some of the world’s worst health indicators and lowest ratios of doctors to patients.

Only one in five people in South Sudan currently have access to healthcare. There is a massive shortage of facilities and skilled health workers and a limited supply of drugs and equipment. The Ministry of Health says that the new country has only about 120 medical doctors and just over 100 registered nurses for an estimated population of nearly nine million.

The International Committee of the Red Cross points out that “this falls far below the doctor-patient ratio in neighbouring Kenya, for …