Family members of a Canadian nurse kidnapped in Darfur have expressed relief that their daughter had been released by her abductors.

Laura Archer, shown arriving at the airport in Khartoum, and three colleagues with Médecins Sans Frontières were held captive a few days in Darfur before their release Saturday. (AP)

Laura Archer and three colleagues with Médecins Sans Frontières were taken by gunman from their compound last Wednesday, and released Saturday. They have travelled from Darfur to Khartoum, where they are being debriefed by Sudanese officials and representatives from MSF.

"We're very proud of Laura and if anyone could have handled this situation, she's the one," the family said in its statement Saturday.

The group is expected to leave the country soon.

MSF has scheduled a news conference in Brussels for Wednesday with an update on the incident, but is not commenting further until all its foreign staff are out of Sudan.

The former hostages may appear at the news conference, said MSF. That will be their personal choice.

Brief appearance at airport

The group made a brief appearance at El-Fasher Airport in North Darfur shortly after their release on Saturday.

"Just thank you very much to all the people who made efforts to have us released in time and, yes, thank you very much to all those people who helped us," said Italian Dr. Mauro D'Ascanio.

"I just would like to say to everybody we are safe, we are here, we are in good health," said French field worker Raphael Meonier.

"We will maybe be more talkative a bit later on. Now our first thoughts are for our families. We have a few minutes to call them so we will take the opportunity to call them."

MSF is reconsidering all its operations in Sudan, and has already pulled all foreign aid workers.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir expelled 13 international aid groups earlier this month, accusing them of helping the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against him, accusing him of orchestrating atrocities in Darfur. Aid groups deny working with the court.

In a speech to thousands of soldiers and police on Monday, Bashir said he had ordered Sudanese aid groups to take control of the distribution of all relief inside the country within a year.

With files from the Associated Press