Rescuers recovered seven more bodies from the Nile after a party boat collided with a cargo ship earlier this week, raising the death toll to 36, Egyptian officials said Sunday.

The accident, the deadliest such incident on the Nile in years, occurred late Wednesday when the victims were celebrating an engagement on a vessel that was struck by a cargo ship.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian began a two-day visit to Cairo Saturday, just days after France delivered the first batch of 24 Rafale warplanes Egypt bought in a multi-billion-euro deal.

Le Drian, who is on a tour of Africa, is to hold talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and other Egyptian officials during his trip.

A Croatian working for a French company has been kidnapped in Cairo, the Croatian foreign ministry said Friday.

The 31-year-old man, identified only by his initials T.S. was abducted by gunmen on Wednesday when traveling to work in a car, the ministry said in a statement.

At least 29 people drowned when their party boat collided with a cargo ship on the Nile, the Egyptian health ministry said on Friday.

The new toll, after police said 19 people had died in the Wednesday night accident north of Cairo, was released after rescuers found more bodies in the river, the health ministry said in a statement.

Four Egyptian soldiers where killed by a roadside bomb on Thursday in the Sinai Peninsula, where the army is battling an Islamist insurgency, the military said.

One officer and three soldiers died in the attack on their vehicle near the border town of Rafah, a military spokesman said on his Facebook page.

A cargo ship collided with a boat on the Nile carrying people celebrating an engagement, leaving at least 18 dead, Egyptian police said Thursday as divers searched for missing passengers.

The captain of the cargo boat and his assistants were arrested following the accident late Wednesday in the Warraq district north of Cairo, the authorities said.

An Egyptian court sentenced a former prime minister of ousted president Hosni Mubarak Wednesday to five years in prison for corruption and fined him millions of dollars.

Ahmed Nazif, whom Mubarak sidelined to appease protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his rule, was convicted in his retrial of having used his position to make a fortune of $8.2 million (7.5 million euros).

The first three of 24 Rafale fighter jets Egypt bought from France in a multi-billion-euro deal flew in on Tuesday, leading a formation flight over the Nile and the pyramids.

Egypt took delivery of the aircraft Monday at an air base in southern France as part of the 5.2-billion-euro ($5.6 billion) deal.

Egypt on Monday took delivery of three Rafale fighter jets from France, the first of 24 warplanes sold in a 5.2 billion euro ($5.6 billion) deal earlier this year.

Egyptian authorities took charge of the planes at an air base in southern France, and they will be flown to Cairo by specially trained pilots on Tuesday.

Egypt's military said on Sunday that 59 militants and seven soldiers were killed in fighting in North Sinai the previous day, including three soldiers in a checkpoint rocket attack.

The military is battling militants loyal to the jihadist Islamic State group (IS) in North Sinai where an Islamist insurgency has surged over the past two years.