The four who died had tried to board a dinghy but were swept away by strong currents, a French government official said, in an incident which happened around 7am local time.
Authorities said another 38 people were assisted, including three who required medical attention, off the coast of Boulogne, between Equihen-Plage and Hardelot-Plage.
The dinghy proceeded into deeper waters and continued its journey to the UK, local authorities said.
It comes less than two weeks after two migrants died off the coast of France during an attempt to cross the Channel, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Francois-Xavier Lauch, an official for Pas-de-Calais, said: "We sadly have to report four deaths this morning.
"The people who died were attempting to board a taxi-boat.
"I have to commend the actions of our officers and firefighters who, as you know, are deployed every day to stop these crossings."
Speaking of the four people who died, he said: "They were already quite far into the sea.
"The currents, which can be dangerous here, swept them away.
"This provisional toll - and I insist that it is provisional - states four deceased: two men, two women."
In the past year, traffickers have taken to motoring dinghies along stretches of the northern French and Belgian
coasts picking migrants up along the shore. Authorities refer to them as 'taxi-boats'.
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The UK government last month signed an extension with France over current arrangements on beach patrols as part of efforts to reduce the number of Channel crossings.
Some 4,441 migrants arrived in the first three months of 2026, according to Home Office data.
This is 33% lower than the number who had reached the UK by this point in 2025, which was 6,642.
Police are still searching for the items after the thief refused to disclose what happened to them.
Enzo Conticello, of no fixed address, made off with the bag at a pub in Soho, central London, on 7 November 2024.
The items had been on display at an event earlier, but an employee of the company that owned them became Conticello's unfortunate victim when she stopped for a drink.
CCTV showed him stealing the bag, and attempting to steal another rucksack a few minutes earlier.
Conticello - also known as Hakin Boudjenoune - was later seen using credit cards from the bag to buy cigarettes and other goods.
He was arrested by Met detectives 12 months later after police in Belfast detained him over another theft under a different name.
Conticello, 29, pleaded guilty to theft and fraud in February this year.
After admitting the charges, the judge told him: "I expect it was probably quite a surprise to you when you discovered that egg."
The stolen items - which also included a laptop - belonged to The Craft Irish Whiskey Company and the court was told they were worth at least $2.8m (£2.1m).
The firm collaborated with Faberge to create bespoke eggs as part of an exclusive whiskey collection which also included the gold watch.
Seven eggs were made, each decorated with a unique gemstone surrounded by a diamond Celtic knot.
Conticello admitted theft and three counts of fraud by misrepresentation and was sentenced on Thursday at Southwark Crown Court to two years and three months in prison.
"The defendant never explained to the police what he did with the expensive jewellery," said Detective Constable Arben Morina.
"Our investigation to find the egg and the watch is ongoing and we'd urge anyone with information to contact us."
A 25-year-old man was arrested in November 2024 on suspicion of handling stolen goods after the whiskey company was approached about the items' value.
However, after a review of the evidence, no further action was taken.
Jermaine Grant, 43, is charged with directing Al Shabaab, attending commando training camps in the southern port city of Kismayu, in Somalia, and possession of an AK47 assault rifle for terrorist purposes during battles in the east African country.
British prosecutors said the charges relate to Grant's alleged involvement with the armed group, which has been linked to al Qaeda, in 2008 and 2009.
"These are serious charges and come as the result of a long-running investigation," acting commander Kris Wright, acting commander of Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) London said.
"This case shows we will always pursue anyone suspected of being involved in terrorist activity, no matter where in the world or how long ago it is alleged to have taken place."
Grant appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday, wearing a yellow and green jumpsuit and flanked by two police officers.
He spoke to confirm his name and date of birth, and that he had no address, but was not asked to enter pleas to any of the six charges.
They include directing the activities of Al Shabaab, three counts of attending an Al-Shabaab commando training camp, and two counts of possession of an AK47 for terrorist purposes during battles, between 31 December 2007 and 1 January 2010.
Prosecutor Carl Kelvin said London-born Grant allegedly "went to Al Shabaab training camps, trained as a commando, became a platoon leader, took part in a number of battles and discharged firearms and took full part in fighting".
The court heard the offences require the Attorney General's consent for the legal proceedings to continue and prosecutors have lodged an application with Lord Hermer.
Hamish McCallum defending made no application for bail and District Judge Nina Tempia remanded Grant in custody ahead of his next appearance at the same court on 16 April.
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counter terrorism division, said: "The charges relate to Grant's alleged involvement in 2008 and 2009 with Al Shabaab, a terrorist organisation operating in Somalia.
"Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings."
A 2025 assessment by the UK Government labelled Al Shabaab a "persistent threat" in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, which carries out "high profile attacks that challenge government authority".
It has targeted international aid workers, journalists, business people and non-government organisations who have opposed or resisted it.
The group has claimed responsibility for high-profile attacks outside of Somalia, including the 2019 attack on Nairobi's DusitD2 luxury hotel complex that left 21 people dead, the 2015 shooting at Garissa University in northern Kenya which killed 147 students, and the 2013 attack that killed 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall.
Haulage and agricultural businesses are angry about the response to rising fuel costs, and have also set up slow-moving convoys on motorways and disrupted major roads in Dublin.
"The blocking of critical national infrastructure will not be permitted to continue and the assistance of the Defence Forces has been requested," justice minister Jim O'Callaghan said in a statement.
He said large vehicles would be removed - and warned owners to "remove them immediately" on Thursday morning, or face the possibility of them being damaged.
Owners "should not complain later about any damage caused to those vehicles during removal", he said.
"Denying people access to fuel and clean water is an unacceptable interference in the most basic of human rights," he added.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin has called the blockading of fuel depots and the Whitegate oil refinery in Co Cork "an act of national sabotage".
He also criticised tractor drivers who snarled up traffic in Dublin and turned the main thoroughfare of O'Connell Street "into a car park".
The city's fire brigade said the protests caused delays getting to emergency calls.
Petrol and diesel costs have soared in recent weeks due to the Iran war and the blocking of supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.
Agriculture minister Martin Heydon said the government would meet with representatives of haulage and farming groups - but would nt engage with the protesters.
He told RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland programme it was a "clear choice between democracy or anarchy, and we have a rule of law in this country".
"I completely understand where people's frustration is from in terms of (the) very high energy shock as a result of the war that has broken out between America, Israel and Iran," he added.
Ireland's coalition last month approved a €250m (£218m) package of measures to ease the burden.
It included a temporary cut to fuel excise, expansion of a rebate scheme for hauliers and bus operators, and an extension of the fuel allowance.
However, the cuts have been largely eroded by the ongoing situation in the Middle East.
Even in the US, Donald Trump's hypnotic power over his base is flickering as some of his staunchest supporters defect.
Beyond their shared charismatic pull, faux-isolationism and nationalist branding, there is something deeper that is required to maintain undying loyalty and complete dominion that Captain Traoré has almost perfectly instilled – a self-regulating silent surveillance that crushes dissent before it dares to start.
A carefully engineered media appearance
We were invited to Burkina Faso's capital city, Ouagadougou, to join an exclusive roundtable interview of Capt Traoré that was completely engineered by his communications department in a climate of repression, fear and intensifying terror attacks, and aired on Burkinabè state television before we were sent the footage for our own use.
We are the first Western media channel to interview Capt Traoré alongside Italian state TV channel Rai, all in French.
Our shared request for a translator or live translation equipment was refused, and we were warned that even a single utterance of English would bring the broadcast to an abrupt end.
We were ushered into a brightly lit, meticulously decorated boardroom after our electronics, personal belongings and pens were locked away in a cupboard. Two rows of seated top generals watched the live feed in a viewing room next door and audibly jeered at my questions.
In broken French, hastily learnt in a few days, I ask what his revolution means in practice. Is it a revolt against the West or an internal national change?
"A revolt against the West? No," he says.
"As a revolutionary, I like to make a distinction between peoples and politics. There are many in Europe, in the West, who support us in our struggle.
"We even see, on your TV programmes and so on, many people speaking out and supporting our struggle for freedom, and I think it's in everyone's interest."
'We want to assert ourselves'
The young president is being hailed as an anti-imperialist revolutionary across Africa and the Black diaspora since coming into power at 34 years old in 2022 in a military coup that punctuated a series of coups across the Sahel.
Shortly after his ascent, he cut ties with Burkina Faso's former coloniser France – expelling their troops and diplomats – and condemned attitudes in the West towards Africa while strengthening relations with Russia and China.
"Now, the policies of certain countries may be opposed to our ideology. And the revolution, logically, will fight this ideology because we want to assert ourselves.
"There are those who do not want us to assert ourselves, who want to keep us in slavery, in alienation. We, the revolution, are fighting against that."
He models himself on the founding father of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara – an iconic African revolutionary who led an anti-imperialist movement as president before he was assassinated in 1987.
As Capt Traoré spoke, I searched for the trademark Sankara spark in his eyes – dynamic, daring and hungry for change.
In spite of Capt Traoré's eloquence and command of the room, I did not see the spark.
A tightening grip on power
The captain is tightening his grip on power as he condemns imperialism globally and pushes trademark Sankara reform domestically that has seen key sectors like mining become nationalised.
But as he pushes for sovereignty and freedom from the West, his junta benefits from a $300m loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and $4.1bn in credit loans and grants from the World Bank while actively eroding civil liberties internally.
Capt Traoré introduced an anti-homosexuality bill for the first time in Burkina Faso's history, and journalists and activists critical of his regime have been sent to the frontline of the war his military is fighting against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda-backed jihadists.
"There is freedom of speech, but you can't speak against the revolution" was a recurring response from locals to our questions about the glaring restrictions.
Who decides what goes against the revolution? What are the red lines that get a journalist sent to fight on the frontline of a brutal war?
Those questions would not be answered by the Burkinabés who told us again and again that they cannot speak unfavourably and risk reprisals.
'Freedom has its limits'
So I asked Capt Traoré himself: Is there room for individual liberty in his revolution for full sovereignty? The freedom to love who one wants? To express oneself freely – to oppose his rule?
"There is freedom. Everyone is free to say what they want, to give their opinion and everything. Even on our TV channels, you see people giving their opinions," he replies.
I am unable to answer him without a translator, and even for French speakers at the table, only one follow-up question is allowed.
"But freedom has its limits," he continues.
"For example, we are a country at war. We will not allow anyone to demoralise our troops whilst they are on the battlefield.
"We will not allow that. We will not allow the local lackeys of imperialism among us to try to sabotage our struggle to bring our country back from the clutches of those imperialists."
Enforced disappearances and terror attacks
Human rights defenders have documented hundreds of enforced disappearances in Burkina Faso since 2023. Even activists who have fled the country are concerned about speaking online and risk their family members being targeted.
Security analysts sharing data on Burkina Faso's jihadist insurgency have told us they are losing on-ground sources as human rights monitors are tracked down and silenced across threatened provinces.
A report recently published by Human Rights Watch accuses the military and auxiliary forces of extrajudicial killings and ethnic violence that claimed the lives of at least 1,200 civilians in their fight against jihadist groups between January 2023 and August 2025. Traoré's government dismissed the findings as "conjecture and unfounded claims".
Early on in the round table, Capt Traoré declared that the terrorists had been pushed back to the border by Burkinabé forces.
The frequency of jihadist attacks documented across the country tells a different story.
Burkina Faso was ranked the second deadliest country for terrorism in 2025 by the Global Terrorism Index.
Security analysts and open source investigators estimate that jihadists have a strong presence in around 60% of the country's territory.
Data shared with Sky News of 1,200 verified jihadist attacks that killed over 4,500 people in Burkina Faso last year includes three of the deadliest terror attacks in the world in 2025.
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The mapping of this data shows an uptick in terrorism from 2019 to 2025 and intensifying attacks since the onset of Traoré's military rule.
I ask the president about these large swathes of land – more than 60% – that are overrun with terrorists and effectively under their control, as evidenced online.
"Name a town. There are just a few towns I haven't visited yet. I go everywhere and everyone goes everywhere," he says.
"The art of lying is in the Western media. Many of these mainstream media outlets, as I like to say, do nothing but lie to sell you false information and make you believe that everything is going wrong.
"On the contrary, many things are going well here. Our economy is doing very well. We're doing better in our struggle and we're making progress. So be careful with what you read on the internet."
'Democracy kills'
We spent a week in the capital meeting students, artists and journalists, but the signs of growing repression came from an unlikely community.
A vigilante group organising rallies in support of Capt Traoré and shielding him from counter-coups and assassination attempts, Citizen Watch, lost a key member that we met on our first day of filming.
One of their leaders, Mahamadi Baguian, was arrested after calling out the minister of justice online. He died in police custody shortly after. The government did not respond to our request for comment.
As we learnt of the sudden death and met his mourning comrades, headlines resonated around the world from the roundtable we had been part of.
"Let's speak the truth; democracy is not for us," Capt Traoré was quoted again and again.
"Democracy kills. That's democracy. Is that what we want?"