ST. LOUIS • Survivors of a massacre at an African refugee camp gathered Saturday at St. Louis University to observe the sixth anniversary of the event - the Gatumba Massacre - in which 166 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed.

The halls of the Busch Student Center hummed with the sounds of the Kinyamulenge language, the dialect of the eastern Congo. People hugged and prayed, and some shared their stories.

The event was sponsored by the Gatumba Refugees Survivors Foundation, based in Albany, N.Y. Most of the victims were part of the Banyamulenge tribe, which is generally associated with Tutsis, and had been forced from their homes during the Tutsi-Hutu conflict.

The United Nations camp, which went by the name Gatumba and was in Burundi, was attacked by anti-Tutsi factions on Aug. 13, 2004. It's estimated that nearly half of those killed in the night attack were children.

More than 500 survivors of the massacre have since moved to North America, the foundation said. Roughly 350 people attended Saturday's gathering.

This is the fourth year the survivors have met to remember the slayings and call for the end of violence throughout the Congo and the region, said Olivier Mandevu, president of the foundation.

"It's being used to bring spiritual and emotional healing," said Mandevu, 35. He lost his mother and older brother in the attack, as well as his mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law.

"Sometimes, it's not easy to talk about this," Mandevu said in a speech Saturday.

But he urged people to share the stories of that night, when people were killed by guns and machetes and set on fire.

Angelique Ngendo was shot in the hip during the massacre. She was 17, and remembers seeing the gunman inside the tent she shared with her family. The man shot to death her father, sister and brother. Her mother was shot in the shoulder.

Now 23, Ngendo lives with her mother and other family members in Columbia, Mo., and works as a housekeeper.

"Everyday, it was war, war, war," Ngendo said.

Esperance Nasezerano's story was similar. She was 12 when she was shot in the lower back as she tried to escape.

She and her family moved to Dallas in 2007, and Saturday's gathering of survivors was her third.

"It's the most important thing of the year for me," she said.

Nasezerano, 18, graduated from high school this spring and plans to attend community college this fall. But she said she will always make time to connect with other survivors at future gatherings.

"It's a day to remember the past," Nasezerano said. "And to know that the past won't come back."