(GIN) – West Africans from the Gambia, living in Atlanta, Washington, DC, Seattle, Minnesota and Rhode Island will mark a National Day of Outrage this week over the Gambian President’s execution of nine prisoners and his threats to kill more.

, Pasamba Jow, one of the coordinators of the Gambia National Day of Outrage, said the executions violated the Gambian constitution.

Speaking to a reporter, Jow said that President Yahyah Jammeh had ignored appeals from the international community not to execute all 47 death row inmates.  “We are protesting because we believe this was a violation of the Gambian constitution,” he said.

Among those executed were Lamin Darboe, whose death sentence had been commuted to life in prison years ago by a former President; Buba Yarboe, who suffered severe mental illness and was incapable of making rational decisions, and Tabara Samba, a mother of young children, tried and sentenced for murder in an apparent manslaughter case, was gang raped by her captors.

“What all three individuals shared in common was their cruel, mind-numbing execution at Mile Two Prisons, an act of brutality so unimaginable, it left an entire nation numbed by grief, disgust and utter disbelief,” wrote the editor of Senegambia News.

The Gambian Vice President, Isatou Njie-Saidy, defended the government action. “Capital punishment is practiced in many countries, she said, and asked why those countries were not being criticized.

 Demonstrations in New York will take place today, Thursday.

A petition against the executions has been posted online at http://signon.org/sign/stop-gambian-president?source=c.fwd&r_by=1329072