The female French aid worker who was kidnapped by the Taliban, then released Saturday after three weeks in captivity, returned home on Sunday, officials said.
The woman has been identified by the French embassy in Kabul as Celine Cordelier.
After giving an emotional statement on Saturday pleading for the release of four male colleagues still being held, she was flown home overnight to France.
Cordelier was kidnapped along with another French colleague Eric Damfreville and three Afghans on April 3 -- all worked for the aid group Terre d'Enfance in southwestern Nimroz province.
The Taliban has said the four men will remain in their custody until the French military pulls out of Afghanistan.
Both French workers are in their 20s.
Before flying home, Cordelier spoke briefly at the Kabul embassy.
"I thank the Taliban for keeping their promise and giving me back my life. I will never forget that they gave me something to eat and drink and treated me with respect," she said in French, her voice shaking and barely audible at times.
"Eric came like me, to Afghanistan as a friend. Hashim, Rasul and Azrat are Afghans. They are Muslims. They are their brothers. They have children waiting for them."
CTV's Lisa LaFlamme, reporting from Kandahar, said the Taliban freed her because she is a woman.
"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."
Upon her release, Cordelier's captors gave her a letter that said the deadline for the remaining hostages had been extended for one week, and demanded France pull out of the country.
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.
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, suggesting it encouraged further 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.
