The International Red Cross helped facilitate the release of a French aid worker Saturday morning, but four colleagues remain captives of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
CTV's Lisa LaFlamme spoke with the Red Cross official who picked up the freed hostage after the French embassy in Afghanistan asked the organization to help facilitate her return.
"I just interviewed the man at the International Red Cross who physically drove to the border of Helmand and Kandahar province which was the designated point," LaFlamme told Â鶹´«Ã½net.
"They drove there, they found her there alone. She had been handed over by the Taliban to village elders in Maywand."
The woman, who has been identified only as "Celine," was then taken to Kandahar airfield, where she boarded a plane and was flown to Kabul, LaFlamme said.
"I am not sure if she is actually en route now to France," LaFlamme said.
"Clearly this is a very mixed blessing for her to leave this country knowing her colleagues are still in the hands of the Taliban. They say they released her because she was a woman as a gesture of good will. It is still so very uncertain as to the fate of her male colleagues."
The woman, along with a male French colleague and three Afghan aid workers, has been held hostage for more than three weeks.
The French woman's Taliban captors gave her a letter that said the deadline for the remaining hostages had been extended for one week, and cited some of their demands of the French government.
LaFlamme read from what was said to be a copy of the letter, though its legitimacy has not been independently verified.
"Celine, take this message to Europe and to NATO. Why is NATO against the charter and having military operating in our country? Celine, this is propaganda in west countries that mujahedeen of Islamic emirates have no respect for women's rights, but you have seen practically our mujahedeen how modest behaviour we have," read LaFlamme.
"Now we release you without any distinction. Celine now we want from French to leave our country, this is our right."
The French man and woman had been working with the aid group Terre d'Enfance in southwestern Nimroz province. They were kidnapped, along with their Afghan colleagues, on April 3.
The French foreign ministry said it will continue efforts to secure the release of the Afghans and the remaining French hostage.
Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Saturday morning the French hostage was handed over to tribal leaders in the Maywand district of southern Kandahar province.
"Because she is a woman, to make good relations with the French government, we have handed this woman over to Maywand district tribal leaders," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone.
"The French authorities confirm that one of the hostages from the Terre d'Enfance aid organization was released this morning in Afghanistan," the ministry said in a statement.
Police have reportedly been dispatched to the area for further investigation.
At the time they were abducted, the French woman had been wearing a burqa and the man had been dressed in a traditional Afghan shalwar kameez tunic and turban. Afghan officials said they did not tell their colleagues about their plans before leaving their office in Nimroz.
A video of the hostages was released 10 days after their capture, showing the French man and woman begging for their lives.
Ahmadi said the Taliban's demands must be met in order to secure the release of the remaining prisoners.
"The French government has to stop giving military support to the Afghan government, and French forces should leave Afghanistan," he told AP.
"When the French government withdraws its forces from our country, then we will negotiate the release of this French man and three Afghans as well."
Two weeks before the NGO workers were kidnapped, Afghan authorities released five Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian newspaper reporter, who was abducted along with his two Afghan colleagues on March 5. The two Afghans were killed.
The U.S. and some European nations were critical of the deal. Afghan lawmakers and foreigners working in the country said it gave the Taliban incentive to stage more kidnappings.
The Afghan government has said the prisoner swap was a one-time deal, and has ruled out any future prisoner trades.
France has about 1,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan. Last year it pulled 200 special forces fighters out of the country.
With a report from CTV's Lisa LaFlamme in Kandahar, Afghanistan
