An elderly Australian woman kidnapped by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Burkina Faso said Monday after her release that she hoped to be reunited soon with her husband and "continue" their medical work there.

"I want to be with my husband shortly so that we can go to Djibo and continue," Jocelyn Elliott said at Burkina Faso's presidential palace.

Elliott and her doctor husband Ken, have run the sole medical clinic in Djibo, a dusty town close to the border with Mali, since 1972.