Lagos - Nigerian armed group MEND threatened on Saturday to thwart a $10-billion trans-Saharan gas pipeline project linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe.

"Any money put into the project will go down the drain as we will ensure that it faces the same fate other pipelines are facing today," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an email statement.

On Friday, three African countries - Algeria, Niger and Nigeria - signed a deal in Abuja to build the more than 4 000-kilometre pipeline conveying gas destined for the European market from the Niger Delta in Nigeria, via Niger and Algeria. - AFP