news Doctors Without Borders says it has heard that kidnapped workers are free

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Doctors Without Borders says it has heard that kidnapped workers are free

27 minutes ago




TORONTO - A Montreal nurse and three other Doctors Without Borders workers have reportedly been freed from captivity in Darfur.
A spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that the group heard about the release Friday from the kidnappers and authorities, but they continue to wait for direct contact with the four workers.
"We have not yet seen our colleagues, nor have we had the chance to speak with them since we heard that they were being released," said spokeswoman Naomi Sutorius-Lavoie.
"They are being returned to us by the authorities. We don't know how many hours that will take."
Laura Archer, who is originally from P.E.I. but had been living in Montreal, was kidnapped with her colleagues late Wednesday in a rural area about 200 kilometres west of the city of El Fasher.
The families of the staff members have been notified and are said to be extremely relieved.
The kidnapping is believed to be the first abduction of westerners in the region.
Archer graduated from the University of Prince Edward Island in 2001 with an honours bachelor of science in nursing degree.
In a 2007 article for her alumni magazine, Archer wrote that an urge to see the world struck her while she was working in San Francisco, so she sold all of her belongings and backpacked through Asia and the Middle East for 18 months.
She wrote she put her nursing skills to use in India after the tsunami in December 2004, and that changed her whole outlook and led her to Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres.
"Through this experience, the difference between being a tourist and a humanitarian became apparent to me - and I knew which I wanted to be," Archer wrote.
"Working with Medecins Sans Frontieres has proven to be the most difficult and rewarding experience of my life."
The agency said it's withdrawing all international staff and Sudanese staff not from Darfur from projects in the region.